Chicago’s Riot Fest has released the full lineup for their 2022 festival, and there are some heavy-hitters this year.
My Chemical Romance and Portugal. The Man will bring in a big crowd on Friday, but the powerhouse headliner this year is Nine Inch Nails (and The Misfits are not slouches by any means). Other must-see acts include Bauhaus, Bad Religion, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Sleater-Kinney, The Joy Formidable, and Lunachicks.
Tickets are already on sale, so don’t wait. Take sunscreen if you go. It was hot and sweaty there in 2021.
After releasing his self-titled debut album in 2017, Dion Lunadon (The D4, ex-A Place To Bury Strangers) is set to release his sophomore album – Beyond Everything June 10th via In The Red Records. Available forpre-orderHERE.
Today, Dion shares a second track; It’s The Truth, with a video directed by Alexander Barton. “This is one of my favorite songs on the record” says Dion. “It started with the opening drum beat and the rest came together quickly. It’s about me writing songs in my little hovel of a studio and looking forward to my wife’s return home from work. A “distance makes the heart grow fonder” kind of thing.”
Alexander Barton says; “In Dion’s live performance he has a wall of sound and noise, it’s very textural and real. About 3/4 of the way through his set, he drags a chain out of a bag like a snake wrangler presenting a cobra to the audience. It’s an exciting moment of the set where he breaks the routine of the rock formula and shares his experimental interests and the audience really laps it up. The cameras pop out and feed his exhibitionism. I make films that feel and use not only the beauty of film, but welcome the noise and error that come with the raw and naive nature of my tools. The chain as an object and material is a fully loaded symbol and historical icon which is a powerful character itself. I wanted to honor the chain for all its brilliance, referencing metal, design, rock n’ roll, violence, sculpture, industrialism, eroticism, and Jacob Marley. It’s The Truth is about material and the spectacle.”
Dion continues; “The record was written and recorded sporadically between 2017 and 2019. I probably wrote about 100 songs during this period. The first album was pretty relentless which I liked, but I wanted to make something more dynamic for the 2nd record. Something that could be more conducive to repeated listens. I’d get in my studio, come up with a song title, and start working on any ideas that I had. For example, with Elastic Diagnostic, the idea was to create a hum that evokes the sound of life coursing through your body. Everything else kind of formed around that idea.”
The lead single released last month, Living And Dying With You, was accompanied by an animated video by Mexico City animator, Julián Name.
Beyond Everything will be Dion’s first release on In The Red(an ideal match for his music), as well as his first full-length since departing A Place To Bury Strangers. Written, performed and recorded by Dion, the songs tap into a raw, palpable energy that blur the line between the music and the person. Drums on the record were played by Blaze Bateh (Bambara) and Nick Ferrante (The Black Hollies).
Dion will be touring with a full band in North America and Europe/UK throughout 2022. The US tour begins in Denver (some of the dates are supporting The Black Angels), with European and UK dates in November. All dates are listed below with more TBA. Tickets HERE.
Sat May 14 – Bethlehem, PA – National Sokols + Thur Jun 09 – Denver, CO – Ogden *Fri Jun 10 – Salt Lake City – Metro Music Hall *Sat Jun 11 – Boise, ID – Knitting Factory *Sun Jun 12 – Seattle, WA – The Crocodile *Mon Jun 13 – Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theatre Lounge Wed Jun 15 – Arcata, CA – Miniplex Thur Jun 16 – Petaluma, CA – Phoenix Theatre *Sat Jun 18 – Oakland, CA – Elbo Room Mon Jun 20 – Los Angeles, CA – Moroccan Lounge Wed Jun 22 – San Diego, CA – Music Box * Thur Nov 03 – Reignier, France – La Poulpe Fri Nov 04 – Gigors, France – Gigors Electric Sat Nov 05 – Torino, Italy – Blah Blah Sun Nov 06 – Zürich, CH – Safari Bar Mon Nov 07 – Fürth, Germany – Kunstkeller 027Wed Nov 09 – Hamburg, Germany – Hafenklang Thur Nov 10 – Berlin, Germany – 8mmFri Nov 11 – Regensburg, Germany – VOID CONCERT @ Alte Malzerai Mon Nov 14 – Bristol, UK – Crofter’s Rights Wed Nov 16 – Nottingham, UK – Chameleon Thur Nov 17 – London, UK – Shacklewell Arms Wed Nov 23 – Paris, France – Supersonic Thu Nov 24 – Rennes, France – TBA Fri Nov 25 – Nantes, France – Duchesse Sat Nov 26 – Lyon, France – Le Sonic * with The Black Angels+ with Haldol and Death Bag
The much-tipped Regressive Left return today with news of their signing to new tastemaker label Bad Vibrations, born from the revered live promoters of the same name, and that their debut EP, On the Wrong Side of History, is set for release on July 15th.
The Luton trio also share their first new material of the year with the DFA-flavoured “Bad Faith”, featuring a vocal contribution from Manchester’s experimental-pop act Mandy, Indiana – quoting French psychoanalyst Octave Mannoni’s paradoxical mechanism: “Je sais bien, mais quand même.” In other words: “I know very well, but even so…” – and picking up the ascent exactly where earlier singles left off, placing wry social commentary and dancefloor ambition right at their front and center.
Front-man Simon Tyrie says the following about the themes behind the track:
“This song essentially focuses on the idea of deliberately assuming the worst of someone or something they’ve said or done. Social media has really amplified this trend: everyone has to have a take. So we read between the lines and make wild accusations on the faintest of evidence. It’s something of an art, but one that I think is ultimately detrimental to society.”
Already chalking up a strong live reputation, the band have toured in support of BODEGA and Folly Group in 2022 already, and today announce their first ever headlining dates.
Catch Regressive Left live at:
MAY
14 Brighton – The Great Escape – Revenge 14 Brighton – The Alt Escape – The Hope & Ruin 15 Leeds – Brudenell Social Club 21 York – The Crescent 27 London – Wide Awake
The annual Psycho Music Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada (August 18-21st, if you count the Psycho Swim pre-party on Thursday) has released its full lineup. It features death metal, rap, psychedelic rock, and even funk freak-outs.
Get to the pool early if you’re going to Psycho Swim. It, and every chair, cabana, and table will fill up quick that day. The pool will also be packed.
Saajtak (pronounced: sahje-talk)—based in Detroit (Jonathan Barahal Taylor, Ben Willis, Simon Alexander-Adams) and Brooklyn (Alex Koi)—today announced their debut album, For the Makers, out June 3, 2022 via American Dreams.
On anthemic lead track “Big Exit,” Koi treats her words like playthings, stretching syllables past semantics, vocal lines in conversation with one another. Alexander-Adams’ electronics quiver, and Taylor’s clattering kit seems to deconstruct the rhythm it builds, before the song unspools into a lush, minimal coda just before the 4-minute mark. Watch the video for “Big Exit” here.
Saajtak makes futuristic music that synthesizes a wide range of genres—often in ways that seem to clash against each other, always in service to the song. The band has quietly made music in Detroit for the better part of a decade, collaborating with members of clipping. and sharing bills with Xiu Xiu, Ava Mendoza and Greg Fox. Koi sings and writes lyrics; Taylor plays drums, Willis bass; Alexander-Adams contributes keyboard and electronics. But to individuate their contributions does the music a disservice. Saajtak sounds, feels, like a living, breathing organism, for which recordings don’t present definitive documents as much as they reflect songs at given points in their lives. For the Makers, the band’s first album, brims with ideas, treating their shape-shifting compositions with a high depth of field.
Saajtak’s compositions are rooted in collective improvisation; their first release, spectral [ drips ], collects several free improvisations. The band was recording music live for a full-length debut when the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic pressed pause on their principal way of making music. In response, the band began working on new music remotely, in increments of eight days. Every two days, members would trade songs, gradually sculpting them into final iterations. Willis recalls putting on his headphones as he began recording bass: “The layers that Alex, Simon, and Jon had begun to craft engulfed me like a wave, filling me. I was suddenly surrounded by my friends.” Over time, the music organically cohered into an album, bringing together influences as wide-ranging as Richard Davis, Meredith Monk and Melvins. Koi’s lyrics balance narrative and enigma, incorporating several perspectives within a song in an approach she calls polyphonic narrative. “I like to imagine how personas might converse in worlds with varying levels of familiarity and skewness,” she explains. “What we receive are relationships that flow between splintery and harmonious, and that contain both ecstasy and affliction. There’s a big thrill in all this, when nothing can be apathetic.”
Throughout, the album mixes the organic and synthetic. Even as motifs, images and lyrics recur, the music thrums with energy, opening into new worlds. This, perhaps, is part of the point: to illustrate an escape, to be one. To Alexander-Adams, For the Makers was “as much a healing practice as it was a means to create”; to Willis, it “feels like a year-improvisation, for which the music never stopped the whole time.” Says Taylor, “it represents our collective voice in the deepest sense: an amalgamation of our individual vulnerabilities, imaginations, ambitions, and love for each other.” The album is testament to the restless creativity powering Saajtak’s engine, and the importance of cultivating creativity, trust and community.
The irony that Blanck Mass has created the film score for Ted K, a film about Ted “The Unabomber” Kaczynski – the man responsible for multiple bombings done as a form of protest against modern technology – isn’t lost on Benjamin John Power (AKA Blanck Mass) or the film’s director, Tony Stone. Blanck Mass is known for creating bold, wild electro soundscapes that mix industrial sounds with ambient noise (or is it industrial noise with ambient sounds?) and being able to play an entire set with a laptop, a sequencer, a DAW, and a couple thumb drives. There are no wood winds on this score. There are no natural strings, drums made of scrap metal, or acoustic guitars. It’s all electronic.
It’s also all good. The main theme (“Montana”) is menacing. “Noise Destroys Something Wonderful” is surprisingly soft, while “Pesticides” creeps around you like a deadly fog. The first half of “ComTech” sounds like a kaiju approaching an oil refinery on the west coast of Japan, and the second sounds like the rolling smoke seen in its aftermath. “Greyhound” has a fuzzy edge to it that unnerves you just a bit. “Tell Me Your Heart” is a slow-dance song for tired robots.
“Dark Materials” is the soundtrack to a robot cat’s dream. “Becky’s Theme” is a song for a Montana woman who worked at a general store near the remote area where Kacyznski lived and befriended him somewhat. “Manifesto” starts out like an old single-propeller plane warming up and then becomes the sound of rising tension and smoldering rage. “Ranger Gary” is peaceful enough to enjoy while meditating next to a mountain stream, while and “At Peace / Freedom Club” starts that way but drifts into dread. By the time we get to “Skidders,” we’re into full-blown madness.
It’s another fine piece of work from Blanck Mass. I need to check out this film, which has garnered many good reviews – as should its score.
Los Angeles based unsung guitar hero Randy Holden announces the sequel to his legendary 1970 album Population II, set to arrive 52 years later, titled Population III via RidingEasy Records. The ex-Blue Cheer guitarist’s new album was recorded as a trio with members of Cactus and Black Sabbath. Hear and share the first single “Swamp Stomp” via Brooklyn Vegan HERE. (And direct via Bandcamp and YouTube.) How do you follow up one of the most legendary, yet rarest albums said to signal the birth of doom metal?
If you’re Randy Holden, you give everyone about 50 years to catch up, then casually drop a tastefully modernized reinterpretation of that sound. Population III picks up where Holden’s 1969 solo debut left off, updated with several decades worth of technological advances and personal hindsight.
Following his tenure in proto-metal pioneers Blue Cheer in 1969, the guitarist aimed for more control over his next project. Thus, Randy Holden – Population II was born, the duo naming itself after the astronomical term for a particular star cluster with heavy metals present. Along with drummer/keyboardist Chris Lockheed, Holden created what many say is one of the earliest forms of doom metal.
“Godzilla just walked into the room. People just stood there with their eyes and mouths wide open,” Holden says of the audience’s reaction to their live debut performing with a teeth-rattling phalanx of 16 (sixteen!) 200 watt Sunn amps. Likewise, their 6-song debut album Population II delves into leaden sludge, lumbering doom and epic soaring riffs that sound free from all constraints of the era. It’s incredibly heavy, but infused with a melodic, albeit mechanistic sensibility. However, troubles with the album’s original 1970 release bankrupted Holden, who subsequently left music for over two decades. For good reason, it’s widely hailed as a masterpiece, and until finally getting a proper formal release in 2020 on RidingEasy Records, was a longtime Holy Grail for record collectors.
Flash forward 40 years to 2010, we find the guitarist/vocalist quietly coaxed into recording a followup album by Holden superfan and Cactus member Randy Pratt. Joined by drummer Bobby Rondinelli (who has played with Black Sabbath, Blue Öyster Cult, Rainbow), the trio cut the 6-song collection of leaden future blues, Population III. “Randy Pratt had written the basic song structures, he understood my music and where I come from quite well,” Holden says. “He nailed it.”
But the recording was ultimately shelved for over a decade. “A year ago, in 2021 I listened to the songs and was delightfully surprised,” Holden says. “I think it’s the best album I’ve ever done.”
Throughout Population III, Holden effortlessly dishes out squealing, soaring leads and skull-thwacking riffs with his signature low end grit and penchant for Middle Eastern scales. Coupled with Pratt’s pocket-locked bass, the slight flanging effect on Rondinelli’s drums and his pugilistic beats, the album occasionally brings to mind Presence-era Led Zeppelin, particularly on the 22-minute epic “Land of The Sun.” Elsewhere, “Swamp Stomp” echoes more the troglodyte blues of Holden’s older work, with his evermore searing solos showing hints of early Clapton/Hendrix era guitar prowess to drive home the stomp of the song’s namesake. At times, Holden sounds reminiscent of Neil Young leading Crazy Horse’s ruptured grunge as his lilting falsetto vocals push and pull his guitar’s siren’s call. Taken as a whole, there’s a very distinct difference between the way these veterans of hard rock’s formative years carry the songs compared to the more lugubrious riffing of today’s young doom purveyors. Population III is the real deal — a powerful continuation of a sound forged 50 years ago, that almost didn’t happen. Somehow, Randy Holden’s music always finds a way to stand the tests of time.
Population III will be available on LP, CD and download on July 1st, 2022 via RidingEasy Records. Pre-orders are available at ridingeasyrecs.com
Combining the talents of members of Pill and Eaters, NYC’s P.E. easily weave in and out of psychedelia, post-punk, no wave, bedroom rock, and dream pop on their second album, The Leather Lemon.
Benjamin Jaffe‘s opening saxophone on “Blue Nude (Reclined)” automatically takes you into a cool headspace while Veronica Torres sings sexy lyrics. “Contradiction of Wants” is a perfect song for 2022. It’s about not knowing what you want, even though you already have everything you need. The bass line on it is wicked. I can’t tell you who plays it, because all the band members (Jonny Campolo, Jaffe, Bob Jones, Jonathan Schenke, Torres) are multi-instrumentalists and often switch axes from track to track. “Lying with the Wolf” goes into low rock and mixes it with synthwave and old school techno beats.
The title track is a short, proto-industrial puzzler. “Tears in the Rain” does invoke some Blade Runner imagery and has guest vocals from Parquet Courts‘ Adam Savage as he teams with Torres to give us a song of romantic hope in times that can be gray and bleak. “The Reason for My Love” is a hot dance track with yet another great bass line (The album is full of them.).
“Magic Hands” has plucked string instruments dancing around slightly loopy synths and drunken android vocals. The darkwave sound of “New Kind of Zen” is powerful and haunting. You’re never sure where the track is going to lead, especially when it floats into spoken word psychedelia. The instrumental “86ed” drifts into “Majesty,” which returns some of the musical themes from other tracks as Torres sings, “I don’t want that life. I don’t want that majesty.” and her bandmates reply, “I want everything.” It’s a neat loop to be in for a couple minutes.
The whole album is worth a visit. It sizzles, saunters, and seduces.
Anika shares new music for the first time since the release of her new album, Change (out now on Sacred Bones), ahead of her North American headline tour next month with live musicians Sally Wanda Whitton (bass, vox), Eilis Kiera Frawley (drums), and Zooey Rosa Agro (keys, vox). Tickets are on sale now here. The cover of Psychic TV’s “Godstar” appears on Sacred Bones’ Todo Muere SBXVcompilation out May 27th, and was recorded in tribute to the late Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, one of Anika’s biggest inspirations.
“Psychic TV, specifically the album Orchids, has been a huge influence on my music and human psyche over this musical life,” says Anika. “[Genesis] is a big inspiration, the humor and investigation element in their work. I remember going to a talk in NYC where G recommended that no-one finish art school. I like this concept. Perhaps it leaves things unfinished and room for the individual to grow shoots, continue on their own journey. Perhaps this is like music school or any creative school. I think G specifically thought the place was bull and that they could do it better on their own terms, which turned out great. They also told a story about an art school work, which involved a used tampon in the shell of a clock. It was called Period Piece. I like the humor in this piece and the deconstruction of social boundaries. They are for sure an inspiration, in how to do things your own way, carve out your own path and don’t worry too much about what other people are doing.” Listen to Anika’s “Godstar” (Psychic TV Cover)
Anika Tour Dates Sat. May 14 – Austin, TX @ Oblivion Access Festival Sun. May 15 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah Mon. May 16 – Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room Tue. May 17 – San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop Wed. May 19 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios Thu. May 20 – Seattle, WA @ Vera Project Fri. May 21 – Vancouver, BC @ The Fox Cabaret Mon. Mon. May 23 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle Wed. May 25 – Toronto, ON @ The Garrison Thu. May 26 – Montreal, QC @ Fairmount Theatre Sat. May 28 – New York, NY @ Knockdown Center Sun. May 29 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s Mon. May 30 – Washington, DC @ Union Stage Tue. May 31 – Knoxville, TN @ Pilot Light Wed. June 1 – Nashville, TN @ Third Man Records Thu. June 2 – Memphis, TN @ Crosstown Arts Fri. June 3 – Dallas, TX @ Cheap Steaks
Keep your mind open.
[I’ll think you’re a star if you subscribe.]
[Thanks to Jaycee and Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]
Brooklyn-based musician Grace Ives presents “Loose,” her debut release on her new label True Panther/Harvest. This is her first new piece of music and video since 2019’s 2nd, an immediate pop record that found critical acclaim (and won over the likes of Grimes and Khalid). Ives wrote and did initial production of “Loose” at her home in Brooklyn and then teamed up with co-producer Justin Raisen (Yves Tumor, Charli XCX). Despite the song’s somewhat self-effacing lyrics – “Oh what a loser sound // I let out when I hit the ground // I never squeal like that // I need some respite, please” – “Loose” oozes confidence. The song is grounded in familiar sonics, but “Loose” is an elevated Ives. “Living in a bed bug infested apartment, withdrawing from SSRIs, not sleeping,” says Ives about where she was mentally and physically when she wrote the song. “There’s nowhere to go but up.” WATCH “LOOSE” VIDEO
Music has always followed Grace Ives – she was raised in New York City by creative parents (her dad is a cinematographer and her mother worked in music), and when she was younger, she was inspired by the sounds of Brittany Spears and Rihanna. A brief stint at MICA in Baltimore and a three year study at SUNY Purchase led to Grace starting to perform, slowly winning over a crowd that has only grown more insatiable. Most recently, Ives opened for Remi Wolf, bringing her infectious songs to a new audience. “Loose” is the first taste of much more to come.
