Young: “It’s quite a special album to me. Music is a gift and when it comes
like this I really feel it. Everything here feels so good. I hope you will agree.”
Album artwork
TUTV: It’s the melancholic Young we hear here, strumming his acoustic guitar,
playing his harmonica here and there, and adding the fitting vocality, intimate
and kind-hearted. All very familiar. He looks back with old romantic memories,
soothing cogitations and nostalgic reveries.
Second Song sounds like a solo album from his
inexhaustible Archives, like candlelight moments
from bygone times.
. Consequence (USA) said: “The new album’s emotional backdrop is heavy, sure,
but there are dozens of little joys swimming through I Built You a Tower.”
The band will travel around in the US next year to build towers.
The song was co-written with Australian
musician and producer Matt Swanton.
It’s about the toxic relationship between a man and a woman,
who nevertheless stay together out of habit, fear, and laziness.
TUTV: My ears hear a kind of restlessness and stress sonically and vocally, expressing
the core of a toxic relationship, the song’s topic. My ears also hear Wilco echoes with rich arrangements and layered orchestrations, while a drum/bass groove controls the pace all the way.
Halfway there’s a dark moment of near-collapse but expressive guitars and subtle harmonies restart the shadowy jam. Give a couple of listens. It’s a magnetic tune to
go back to.
Their 4th full-length, named YANKEE HOTEL FOXTROT
was released on 18 Sept 2001, today 25 years ago.
The towers in Marina City, a residential-commercial building
complex in Chicago, inspired the record’s front artwork.
#13 in the US, #40 in the UK.
Pitchfork wrote: “After half a year living with a bootleg copy, the music remains
revelatory. Complex and dangerously catchy, lyrically sophisticated and provocative,
noisy and somehow serene, Wilco’s aging new album is simply a masterpiece; it is
equally magnificent in headphones, cars and parties.
Beneath the great story of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, there are all the tropes and symbols
and coincidences of a little mythology; but under that is a fantastic rock record. And
why tell you? You all already knew this.”
Another batch of 5 new, stellar tracks has
been added to Turn Up The Volume’s Jukebox.
Turn it up.
ALL TOGETHER
. TRACK BY TRACK
Band: ASH Who: The rockin’ vets
from Northern Ireland.
Track: BITTERSWEET BLUE
New single. You can pre-order the 7″ vinyl right here.
The firm rocker will be on the 30th anniversary edition
of their debut LP 1977, out October 16th. More info here.
TUTV: After all these years seething guitars and poppy harmonies still
dominate Ash tunes. And they are still pretty good at it. Bring on the heat.
AmyJohDoh: “It’s about reconnecting with the feminine energy in all of us: compassion, respect, harmony, empathy. Look where all that anger and ‘divide and conquer’ energy has actually gotten us. Enough is enough. The time has come for change, and it starts with
each one of us.”
TUTV: These Spanish punk rock bloodhounds do not waste valuable time. Piping-hot guitars kickstart this supersonic stormer, immediately followed by the flamboyant frontwoman AmyJohDoh who’s loud and clear about these days’ ongoing worldwide intolerance and damaging bigotry.
Why not get all together and start a global moshpit while the true-hearted vehemence behind It’s Girl blasts out of giant speakers. C’mon, let’s give it a try. Fun guaranteed.
The song is a haunting descent into isolation and anxiety that channels
a sense of creeping unease, and the ghosts we carry with us long after
the lights go out.
TUTV: Sonically and vocally, this jangly guitar pop woolgathering resonates like
a breezy Indian summer tune for quiet night drives. On the other hand, the song’s
story isn’t a happy one, whatsoever. Mental issues draw all attention.
Well, these days, with the chaotic times we live in, ruled by psychotic world leaders,
it’s not like we have a lot of reasons to jump for joy. And then again, music can have
a healing force. It always has. In the end, music rules. As it does here.
Artist: KURTYS KIDD Who: Canadian gritty guitar
riff rocker and actor.
Track: OUT IN THE SPIRAL ARM
Preview from his upcoming 2nd album, The Dirty Machine, landing on September 30th. A record about finding your way through the dark to the dawn.
The eye-catching album artwork
TUTV: Out In The Spiral Arm is a classic hard rocker motorized by an avid army of roasting
riffs-licks-hooks loaded guitars. They create an overwhelming wall of high-octane thunder that blows you and your speakers away, while Kidd‘s hell-bent voice adds more fuel to the electrical firestorm.
Artist: KEVIN MORBY Who: The Texan troubadour/songsmith.
Track: PBJ
New standalone single that follows his
8th full-lengthLittle Wide Open, released
in May.
TUTV: One of Morby’s close friends described driving with the windows down and the air conditioning on as ‘peanut butter jelly’. Hence PBJ. Morby‘s romanticism and enthralling voice mark this electrifying, folky daydream. His beloved wife/songstress Waxahatchee stars in the accompanying video clip.
Legendary rock band BOSTON was formed in, eh, Boston in 1975 by founder/chief sonwgriter and
guitarist Tom Scholz .
The first Boston album was mostly recorded in his
basement studio, primarily using devices he invented.
On 18 September 1976, today 50 years ago,
that album’s single MORE THAN A FEELING
came out.
An electric guitar-dominated rocker, made commercial with
an accessible beat and hand-clap backup and smooth, soaring
vocals.
#5 in the US, #4 in Canada, #11 in Australia and #22 in the UK.
More than 1,213 billion streams on Spotify.
“It’s more than a feeling (More than a feeling)
When I hear that old song they used to play (More than a feeling)
And I begin dreaming (More than a feeling)
‘Til I see Marianne walk away”
Mysterious, experimental, Canadian weirdos ANGINE DE POITRINE (French
for angina pectoris. A severe pain in the chest and left arm, caused by heart
disease) featuring (cuckoo aliases) Khn de Poitrine (guitar/bass) and Klek
de Poitrine (drums) became a sensation overnight with the release of their
2nd jaw-dropping LP, Vol. II, last April (named by TUTV as one of the 5 best
albums of that month).
Suddenly, all their tour dates sold out in no time.
And everybody – press, social media, TV – wants
a piece of them.
Last June they performed for the first time on UK TV. Now they made their
debut on American TV on the The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon.
They played a brand-new banger, named ZUGZEGK (‘rucksack’ in English).
Artist: USI ES Who: The musical moniker of Belgian singer-songwriter Ester Weemaes. In her attic studio, she interweaves synths and samples with her distinctive, dark voice. Her music balances between darkness and dreaminess, feeling like a blanket wrapped around you: soft yet heavy, with frayed edges.
She released her emotive debut album SideQuest last February.
Usi Es‘s murder-ballad approach on Berlin has been inspired by the migration history
of her Moluccan family, via New Guinea to the Netherlands. Uprooted twice, each time
due to circumstances beyond their control.
TUTV: Her piano-touching version is a poignant, heart-rending and vulnerable one with Es‘ near-whispering, film-noir voice upfront, joined by Wholes frontman Wolf Vanwymeersch‘ deep vocals on the spine-tingling twilight chorus. Horripilation in the dark.
Band: WHOLES Who:Belgian raucous noise outfit led by musical chameleon Wolf Vanwymeersch,
who played with several bands before producing pop, rock post-punk and
sludge metal.
Their Berlin delivery balances on the edge of collapse, “You’re Berlin on the border of
falling down / In a Swiss bank that has sold your life”, and sketches a world in which capitalist systems alienate us from one another while simultaneously cultivating a desire for more.
TUTV: Amps up, guitars up, gloom and doom up. The Apocalypse is just around the corner, and Wholes have obviously seen flashes of it. Their view on these collapsing times causes, by now familiar goosebumps reflections.
