Track By Track

Chicago’s Trio SHE RIDES TIGERS Tells You All About Their Debut Album ‘SCARS’ Track By Track…

Posted on by JL

14 June 2019

Chicago‘s SHE RIDES TIGERS describes themselves as a fuzz guitar riff-laden power-trio blurring the lines between psychedelic rock and power pop. They just released their debut album titled SCARS. A multifaceted work with changing tonality matching changing moods. From the lifelike human touch of ‘Scars Of Allegory’ to the jangly tension of ‘Should’ve Known Better’ and lots of other amplified sentiments in between to discover. Guitarist and vocalist Joe O’Leary will help us out and guide us through the record track-by-track…

Here are the songs…


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Here are the stories…

1. Scars of Allegory
“This song started with some big open chords and a breakneck drum beat in a basement jam. It was originally going to be a hard-hitting punk song until I accidentally hit the ‘shimmer‘ effect on one of my pedals. Suddenly there were octaves and overtones that made the melody more sad and spacious. We were led to this melancholy feeling and the lyrics ended up being centered around the challenges we go through as individuals and within relationships, where each person takes on damage throughout their lifetime. That damage becomes a defining feature of who they are, so why not feel proud about showing our scars?”

2. Perfect Crimes
“This gigantic fuzz pedal riff landed with a thud during the first or second jam we had with our then new drummer, Ryan. It just felt like us, and the timing of where the riff and drum beat met had a lot to do with our collective obsession with Led Zeppelin. The lyrics were a cathartic exercise in acknowledging some past romantic relationships and then letting them go. This song was one of the first we wrote together and, to us, it serves as a stylistic transition between the EP ‘Standing On The Edge‘ and the new album.”


Led Zep: obsessional influence…

3. Take a Bow
“We all have points in our lives where we know we weren’t at our best but we somehow achieved a kind of sloppy grace and kept going. There’s a 70’s glam feeling of debauchery in general, which we channeled with pride on this song. When you’re on a roll partying and sleeping around, it can become a spectacle to the people around you, almost as if you’re putting on a performance. This song explores the mentality of doing all the dirty things no matter who’s watching, and to drunkly yet charmingly take a bow for whomever catches the show.”

4. Heart Worth Breaking
“Here we are again with a song about relationships. It flips the idea of relationship aspirations on its head and explores the perspective of measuring the strength of your relationship with another person by way of finding out how deeply each person can break the other’s heart at any given moment. Sometimes the vulnerability we reveal when we open ourselves up to someone else can make it feel like a piece of ourselves is slipping away and being swallowed up by the other person with regards to the affection, lust, and self-disclosure that occurs.”

5. Out of My Mind
“Ryan began warming up one night at Populist Studio, where we rehearse and write, and James [Scott, bass and vocals] and I both looked up as we heard this strange drum pattern he was absentmindedly doing. We both grabbed up our instruments and just started bashing away to it. That became the verse of the song. The melody inspired a sense of longing in me and chorus lyrics began to surface about the anxiety of leaving [and being] left behind. The verse lyrics are like a character (poorly, but charmingly) pitching the reasons why they shouldn’t be left behind while also revealing a general dissatisfaction with the average “work-eat-sleep 9–5″ lifestyle many of us feel trapped within. This is my favorite song to sing on the album, and my favorite guitar solo to play live at the moment.”

6. Something to Believe In
“We grew up playing punk shows in Midwest basements, garages and VFW’s in the 90s. Each band member carries an underlying punk ethos, and this song simply let that bubble to the surface without trying to dress it up in something clever. The lyrical theme follows suit with a nostalgic look into my punk rock past as a teenager and the simple reality that it was. It’s another song about being cool with where you came from and what shaped you, and letting it go so that it no longer has any hold on who you may grow into.”

7. No Way Out
“The MC5 will always be a source of inspiration to this band, just as much as desert rock bands like Queens of the Stone Age. Sonically, we smashed these two styles together and a song about the consequences of our actions took shape. It’s another one about glorious debauchery, where you do all the wrong things even though you know it’s wrong, and you just go down in a blaze of glory. We’ve all been there.”


MC5 forever…

8. Should’ve Known Better
“This song poses a possible reality where the fanatical supporters of Donald Trump (and others like him) suddenly wake up and realize they were fooled. We didn’t want to make it sound angry, it’s quite fun to play. The instrumental section in the middle might be one of my favorite on the record.”

Thank you for the track-by-track breakdown, Joe.
May the road rise with SHE RIDES WITH TIGERS!

SHE NEEDS TIGERS: Facebook

(Photos Led Zep & MC 5: AP Press / Getty)

Chicago’s Grit Rockers FAUX CO. Released Their Debut LP ‘RADIO SILENCE’ – Discover It Here TRACK BY TRACK…

Posted on by JL

18 April 2019

What a relief to find out there are still artists and bands out there that still care about the genuine and timeless essence of rock and pop, namely, writing irresistible and infectious tunes that make you forget, temporarily, about the strain and stress of daily life, creating passion injected songs for hungry hearts and sentimental souls, composing captivating melodies that tickle your emotions in a magnetic and mesmerizing way.

That is exactly what Chicago‘s spirited quartet FAUX CO. and its chief singer/songwriter
Ben Mackey does. Inspired by influential icons, from The Beatles to Elliot Smith, this band produces stimulating and invigorating music that makes you feel both exhilarated and stirred. They just released their affecting debut LP ‘RADIO SILENCE’. Ben Mackey will tell you more about that beauty, track by track…

Here’s the music…


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Here’s the breakdown, track-by-track …

1. PROZAC SPACEMAN
“I always thought of this one as the album opener; the way things come in gradually. This one is about getting yourself free from toxic people, [away] from ‘Prozac Spacemen‘ in the workplace.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY03EHL_b2s
The Prozac injected video clip..

2. SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT
“Definitely proud of this one in all aspects. The dirty horns turned out great. We wanted a kind of White Album feel from this one. Lyrically it’s about pursuing your art at all costs.”


The band that set several records straight…

3. THE SUN WILL COME BACK
“This is probably the only cover song we will release. We reworked it from being a Nick Gagne folk song into kind of a banger. The album has a retro vibe, [so] what could be
more retro than reworking a [someone else’s] song and making it your own?

4. OH, MOTHER NIGHT
“This one is our take on that early rock and roll feel. My favorite tracks are from that era, and this one echoes that love of early rock and roll records.”

5. GIMME SUMTHIN’
“A straight-up rocker of a track, the song is from the point of view of a frustrated beggar on the street giving people who are ignoring him the business because he is tired of people’s lack of humanity.”

6. IT’S NOTHING, REALLY
“This one is a story of apathy and coming to terms with romanticizing an ideal of someone, while the reality of that person might be more complicated. I like how all the elements blend in this one sonically.”

7. MAYBE IS A WORD
“This one started out in 3/4 but we moved it to 4/4 and I’m glad we did. My love of Elliott Smith‘s work really shows in this introspective ballad. Thematically, it’s about knowing when to take a hint.”


The late great Elliott Smith, still an inspirational force for many…

8. GET A SAY
“The end of this song is musically my favorite part of the record. This one is about not listening to Gurus more than yourself and humanity taking back its power from the makers of our dysfunctional world. Definitely the ending though, probably the most
epic (dare I say) moment on the record.”

FAUX CO.: Facebook – Bandcamp

(promo photos FAUX CO via PR agency Chicago)

Garage Rockers THE GALA Have Some Roaring ‘BAD NEWS’ – They Will Tell You All About It ‘TRACK BY TRACK’…

Posted on by JL

28 March 2019

Here’s what Turn Up The Volume! wrote after hearing roaring Boston rockers THE GALA
for very the first time: “If Debbie Harry and Chris Stein would have been into brawny garage rock instead of bubblegum punk Blondie would have sounded just like this. Hefty, robust, provocative and with an unstoppable appetite for lively tumult fueled by organ orgasms.”

The good news is this cracking turbo still rolls madly and badass-ly as they prove
on repeat on their debut album, titled BAD NEWS. A frenetic and frenzied record
with several soul-healing tracks inspired by the energetic frontwoman Emily Doran‘s unfortunate relationship breakdown which led to the overall raging resonance and
spitting force of this rowdy LP and to the discharging album sleeve. Ladies and gents, please welcome Emily who will tell you all about the bad news, track by track…

Here’s Emily…

Here’s the music…


.
Here’s the track by track guide…

1. OH ABBY
“I thought it appropriate to kick off the album with a song is about sharing a Lyft with
a drunk girl. It was a Friday night, not quite yet 10pm. The driver picked me up first,
then headed to a bar, whereupon arrival, he exclaims “oh no, that’s Abby?!” The next
thing I know, this Amazonian sorority chick is barreling in the backseat on top of me, followed by her date. She proceeds to ramble on about wanting pizza before passing
out. Once we get to her apartment, naturally she refuses to get out of the car. Her date ever so gently nudges her to wake up, but she doesn’t budge, until suddenly she pops
up and tries to climb out the front seat of the car, then comes crashing back on top of
me, again, before finally crawling out the back.”

2. NICOTINE
“Smoking is bad for your health. So is carrying on and on,
and onnnnnn about the last person you dated.”

3. BLOOD ORANGE
“Inspired by a can San Pellegrino blood orange soda, what was supposed to be
a working title to the song, just sounded too cool to change, so it stuck. At the
same time, I was seeing this new guy, we were really into each other, he was being
really noncommittal, but he was really hot, and we were really into each other, so the relationship stuck, (for a little while)… continue reading for the details of its destruction!”


Song-inspiring drink…

4. CRYBABY (DREAM OF ME)
“On the surface, this is simply my recollection of the last moments with the aforementioned guy, (after waking from a dream, thinking he was lying beside me)
but looking back now, I see writing this as more about acceptance. Letting the feelings
of loss wash over me, without any anger, or denial, and allowing myself to feel utterly heartbroken. As much as it hurt, as much as I cried, as much as I sobbed writing this song, it felt indescribably good, to allow myself that release, and bc I knew I had captured this moment of pure unfiltered emotion, something I couldn’t ever create under any other circumstances.”

5. FRAGILE
“This was the first song I wrote post-breakup. I had lost my shit for a minute, words were exchanged, and when I realized I’d said too much, this was my way to keep talking, to say all the things I wanted to say, when I knew I could no longer speak to this person anymore. (Really that’s what most of these songs were). I wrote it in four hours, and I was pissed, if you couldn’t tell.”

6. BOY
“I wanted to have one kinda ‘sweet’ song, and I knew I wanted to write about relishing in the pre-date ritual, the anticipation and excitement that comes with knowing you’re gonna get to see your sweetie soon. While I had no problem tapping into those feelings, I still struggled with this one, so of course, it is not without a subtext of bitterness.”

The clip about the boy…

7. SORRY
“I wrote this song to express feelings so painful, I refused talk about them, physically I couldn’t speak the words aloud. But I couldn’t write a song that devastating, so instead, this was my way of turning the tables, and taking that power back into my hands.”

Sorry seems to be the hardest word…

8. LONG WAY HOME
“There were a lot of compounding factors that made it a particularly difficult breakup,
one of them being that I had very recently moved from Boston to one of the neighboring cities. It was not by choice, and I wasn’t happy about it, but I was much closer to this guy, only about a mile away, that was the upshot. Everything I knew about the neighborhood was associated with him. For a while, I only knew my way around based off the relative location of his house (which was on the main drag). I felt like I was lost every time I left home. I ended up finding alternate routes to get from place to place, so as to avoid his block. It was a very traumatic, and overly dramatic time!”

9. XX
“Here we have my little rant on how women’s bodies are objectified and demonized, inspired by Lizzy Martinez, who at the time age 17, was reprimanded by officials at her Florida high school for not wearing a bra. I won’t get into the details of her story, but you can look it up if you want to share in the fury.”

10. GUILTY PASS
“This was the last song we wrote for the record, I actually finished it in the studio, as I was tracking the vocals. It’s more or less about holding onto everything when you know it’s time to let go. Because moving on means redefining your identity, and opening yourself up for the potential to get hurt, again (and I did). There was definitely this desire to stay in a place that while painful, had become comfortable in its familiarity, and what is scarier than the unknown?”

11. PITY PARTY
“But we can still be friends. Why do people feel like that is an appropriate way to punctuate a breakup? No thanks. And let me tell you why… that’s what this song is about, alongside the awkward discomfort of running into your ex at a party, except from the perspective of the new girl. Recalling on those experiences after the fact, I swore not to put myself in those shoes, and as I write this, I have still not run into that guy, sooo success?”

12. THE SPINS
“The oldest track of the bunch, I was reading Spinster by Kate Bolick at the time, and really feeling my single status. The spins was sort of my take on the subject matter, disguised as a song about drinking too much and losing control. It’s kind of apropos it ended up being the final track on the album, because I’m basically right back there where I started.”


Song-inspiring book…

Thank you, Emily, for opening your heart and guiding us
through the album. May the road rise with THE GALA!


This is how bad news looks like…

THE GALA: Website – Facebook –  Twitter / Label: DEAD BEAT RECORDS

(photos band/Emily: by The Man Formerly Known As JustBill received via band)

Guitar/Synth Pop Brothers ALCABEAN Released Debut Album ‘CONFESSIONS’ – Explore It Track-By-Track…

Posted on by JL

20 March 2019

ALCABEAN is the musical vehicle of young Danish brothers Julius & Victor Schack.
They create melodious guitar synth pop colored with dreamy duet vocals that take
you to a blissful state of mind. They know pretty well how to write about daily life experiences and personal stories and wrap them neatly into modern-day tunefulness spiced with New Order and Tame Impala echoes. They just released their enraptured
debut album ‘CONFESSIONS’ and Julius & Victor will tell us all about it track by track…

Here’s the music…

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Here’s the track by track guide …

1. ATHENS
“‘Athens‘ started out as a synth based song back when it was in its early demo form.
We really loved the vibe of the song and we decided to reconstruct it and record it on
our respective instruments. The synth bass line from the original demo also became the main bass line on the finished demo. We really kinda went nuts on this song and we didn’t care about the length of the track. We just wanted to create a song on our own terms.”

2. CONFESSIONS
“We knew right away that confessions had to be the title track of the record. The lyrics and the vibe of the song really encapsulate what this record is about: the hardship of looking into your own fragile and yet egotistical psyche and realising you’ve become something that you never intended to be.”

3. TSUKUYOMI
“‘Tsukuyomi‘ was the first demo that we wrote for the album. ‘Tsukuyomi‘ is the song that opened us up to a new musical direction and from that song we kinda had a faint idea of how we wanted the album to sound and be aesthetical. This song actually started out really slow, as a downplayed almost acoustic demo. We then had the idea to speed it up, write a synth part and put an electric guitar on the song.”

4. ITCHY SKIN
” ‘Itchy Skin‘ is an amuse bouche on the album. Compared to other songs this was really easy to write. We gave ourselves a creative free-pass on this record and the song is a result of that. It stands out as a little different compared the other songs, yet it still fits the overall vibe of the album. This song was one of the least serious songs on the album and the solo at the end really embodies that. The slide solo was actually recorded with a small glass and not a guitar slide.”

5. ROOKIE
“We have an ongoing joke in the band about this being the only proper rock song of the album. It’s probably the only song on the album based around a guitar riff, which is funny cause that used to be how we started writing most of our older songs. As Julius puts it: “I remember listening to Victor making the demo of the song and I really loved the riff. I asked Victor jokingly after hearing the riff “Are we now all of a sudden making Rock music again?”

6. HOLLYWOOD
“This is a pompous indie rock song about living a mediocre life and accepting that while still living in a society where mediocrity often is seen as failure and self-realisation as the
path to happiness.”

7. RED
” Red‘ was probably the most fragmented of our demos when we started working on it.
We actually wrote the whole song before writing the lyrics. This gave us a chance to really write a story with narrative qualities to it. You follow the main character ‘Red’ who is feeling vulnerable and fragile and is trying to find solace in opening up to the people around him.”

8. FEEL
” Feel‘ was the first song we ever wrote 4-5 years back when we started. This song has been recorded and played live under every constellation the band has ever had. it was actually supposed to be on our EP ‘Head Down‘ but we just weren’t happy with the sound and feel of the song in that particular version. The song might be simple but it took us a long time to get it right, and luckily for the song we finally found a way to do it justice.”

9. KING THE QUEEN
“‘King The Queen‘ was reconstructed because we thought we could make it better. We
spent quite some time on this song trying to fuse the different elements of the record
into a song that had it all. The rhythm in the intro of the song was actually played on a
midi keyboard on the demo and our drummer tried to imitate it 1 to 1 when we recorded the album.”

10. MEET ME AFTERWARD
“The magnum opus of the record. We never had a doubt in our mind that this should be the closing track of the album. This is the longest song we’ve ever made and probably one of the longest we will ever do. In the writing process, we knew we wanted something with an epic buildup that still left some room for its more fragile parts. We already have a feeling in the band that this is gonna be the best song from the album to play live.”


Brothers in arms…

ALCABEAN: Facebook – ‘Confessions’ on iTunes

GIOELE VALENTI Aka HERSELF Leads Us Through His New Majestic Album ‘RIGEL PLAYGROUND’ – Track By Track…

Posted on by JL

19 October 2018

HERSELF is the moniker of Italian multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter Gioele Valenti, who’s also making psychedelic waves with his terrific Juju project. Today sees the release of his new magnificent Herself LP entitled RIGEL PLAYGROUND. An intimate and delicate record with profound reflections and gripping reveries about different puzzling aspects of mankind, about the meaning of life, about schizophrenia and karma and with one magical Mercury Rev touch. Music that warms your heart and thoughts that enlighten your soul. Of course, the only person who knows all the details about this glowing work of sonic humanity is the author himself. Gioele Valenti will reveal anecdotes and stories about all the songs, right here, track by track…

Here’s the music…

https://open.spotify.com/album/2lFxjfypIRNJNzXGNs74EI?si=eWOWeHYUTOOR_T3CpXteFA
.
Here are the anecdotes & stories…

1. ANOTHER CHRISTIAN
“A song I would call naive. Very strange and intimate. It’s a metaphor. We are permanently driven by our brain. But our mind, is it really our property? I think we live controlled by others, constantly. “They made me run in circle in my brain“, says the song. Christianity and all religions put an alien in ourselves. Schizophrenia is the rule.

2. BARK
“It’s like a lamentation or, if you prefer, a prayer… humans are a particular kind of animal. We can roll ourselves in the mud, but with good roots planted, we can take a leap in the light. This aspect of things is very interesting to me. From Jewish Qabbalah to Buddhist asceticism, the debate between matter and spirit, light and shadow is substantial. The barking of a dog, as the howling of the wolf to the moon, expresses at best an existence
in balance between nostalgia and unknown.”

3. CRAWLING
“Very pop(py). I think about John Lennon, when I hear that song. The light that keeps on shining at the highest level, when you’re in a deep well. It’s about karma rule: “So at last,
all the things you gave turn back”.“

4. IN THE WOOD
“Folk, traditional, with a bit of wave underneath the skin. Phil Oach? Donovan?
I don’t know. Played in a wood.”

5. THE BEAST OF LOVE
When I wrote this song I immediately thought about Mercury Rev and their incredible vox, Jonathan Donahue. A true poet and a magician. So I asked him to collaborate. He liked the song very much. (He. Said. Yes.). For me, it’s a miracle. Mercury Rev it’s the best band ever for me. That song is the reason I’m gonna be touring with them, so you can understand what that song means for me.

6. WITNESS
“It’s the song I wrote for all the victims of the Bataclan tragedy in Paris 2015.”

7. TREATS
“A childhood song. Purity, clarity, softness, with a T-Rex sauce.”


T-Rex nostalgia…

Thank you Gioele Valenti for the intriguing info.
May the road rise with HERSELF!

Album available here on iTunes

(photo by TUTV!)

Electro Turbo BIG TIME KILL Release Red-Hot-Blooded Debut Album ‘SHOCK AND AWE’ – Discover It Here… Track By Track

Posted on by JL

3 October 2018

BIG TIME KILL is a blazing electro-rock duo formed in Boston, back in 2014 by multi-instrumentalist and producer Adam Schneider and his friend/multi-instrumentalist
Ben Caccia. After their 2015 debut EP the scorching tandem, influenced by industrial
noise devils such as Nine Inch Nails and Killing Joke just released their first full length entitled SHOCK AND AWE. A totally steamy body of volcanic work injected with flaming electro trash eruptions boosted by obstreperous synths, hammer-blow drum machines, diabolical guitar frenzy and Schneider‘s anxious vocals all over it. This firstborn is a gusty
beast that will have a titanic impact on your ears and your speakers. Please welcome
Adam Schneider who will tell you more, track by track, about the pair’s red-hot-blooded powerhouse…

Here’s the music…


.
Here’s the breakdown track by track…

1. Carbon
“Short and sweet. Carbon‘s all about contrast and uncertainty/anxiety, which are themes that carry throughout the rest of the album.”

2. Body Talk
“I remember listening to a lot of The Stooges’ Fun House when we started working on this track. I really admire the visceral energy on that album and wanted to channel that into ‘Body Talk‘s performance.”


A stooge influence…

3. I Don’t Care Anymore
“I’m a sucker for funky beats and I always wanted to work slap guitar into a song.
This track’s about how we’re constantly bombarded with information to the point
where it all becomes white noise.”

4. DTs
“DTs is kind of like a journey where my hip-hop and progressive rock influences stick
out a little more. The title refers to Delirium Tremens which is a form of withdrawal.”

5. Don’t Need You
“We probably have 3 different completed arrangements of ‘Don’t Need You‘ that
we experimented with, and this one was the most dynamic and interesting to us
in the end. The saxophone solos are done by our friend Patrick Medina who gave
us killer performances which I then glitched and mangled in post-production.”

6. Evil
“This was the “let’s throw everything we can at this including the kitchen sink” track. Lots of mood shifting and changeups, with some great backup vocals by our friend Angelika in
the band Brighter Than A Thousands Suns. Watching the show Twin Peaks for the first
time also influenced this track’s composition and lyrics.”


From Twin Peaks to Evil…

7. Shock and Awe
“The title track was actually the last song written and completed for the album. I’m a big fan of the Bomb Squad‘s noisy sample-based production on the Public Enemy albums, and
I wanted to use those techniques to make something industrial and funky that summed
up all the ideas we were trying to capture on the album.”

8. Answer
“Another dance track mixing funk and industrial vibes together. This song is about
how we attach ourselves to different things to give our life meaning and how it can
be difficult to break away from those things, for better or worse.”

9. Echo Heart
“A lot of our songs are pretty upbeat, and Echo Heart is an experiment in slowing
things down, getting a little moodier, and seeing what happens in our writing. I still
love the shoegaze-influenced guitar sounds we got on this one, and the song’s ending
is one of my favorite moments on the album.”

10. Overload
“One of the very first songs I ever wrote for this band and it’s what we’ve usually been closing our shows with. The energy we try to pack into this song live took a lot of effort
to capture in the recording, but I think in the end we finally got it. Someone at a gig once described this track as “Ministry on speed” and I’d say that’s pretty accurate.”


Ministry on speed…

11. Failed Regeneration
“While making this album I also worked on scoring a video game, which made
me want to create something cinematic and a bit darker than unusual.”

Thank you, Adam Schneider, for all the info.
May the road rise with BIG TIME KILL!

SHOCK AND AWE is available on Bandcamp (name your price)
and iTunes – you can stream the record als on Spotify….


Photo by James Dattolo of A Curious Production

BIG TIME KILL: Website – Facebook –  Twitter

IDLES’ New Ace Album ‘JOY AS AN ACT OF RESISTANCE’ – Track By Track…

Posted on by JL

18 September 2018

joy-idles-800

Bristol’s loud and clear punks IDLES formed in 2011. After storming the indie scene in
2016 with red-hot-blooded debut LP Brutalism the band returned a couple of weeks
ago with boiling album number two. JOY AS AN ACT OF RESISTANCE will be on top
of countless end-of-the-year lists, except on the list of the Theresa May‘s of this world.
It’s an awesome record, from the burning start to the reflective, slow savage finish.
A terrifically cracking masterslam in rip-roaring sound and social vision. Hell yeah!

Here’s thanks to npr music, its writer Bob Boilen and, of course Idles‘ energetic
frontman Joe Talbot a closer look into the awesome longplayer, track-by-track…

Here’s the music...

.
Here are the stories…

1. COLOSSUS 
This song was written purposely as the opener to the album; we always try and write records as an entity in itself with a brief. We wanted the first track to be cinematic and ominous, as a way of capturing the pressures of performance and grief. We wrote the
first crescendo part in about 10 minutes and fell in love. We knew we wanted to throw
in a grandiose red herring that would contrast with our more regular bosh of garagey blabbersmash. The lyrics came swift and it all wrote itself, so to speak.

2. NEVER FIGHT A MAN WITH A PERM
This song came about when I said the album needed a knife to cut through the macabre timbre of the album’s arch; as soon as I mentioned “knife,” Bobo [guitarist Mark Bowen] shat the riff out like he knew the album wanted it also. I wanted the song to be an exploration of the horrid corners of my past; the bit I felt shame from. I think of my art as a way of being vulnerable, an exercise in catharsis, and a reflection of my ugliness that can exalt shame. Here it manifested into something beautiful, as all catharsis should be.

3. I’M SCUM
This was a song built on pace. We wanted to slow the record down and force the listener to march to our beat. The notion of a parade came to mind as soon as we came up with the beat. I wanted it to be a celebration, a defiant parade of all the things. This was a song that we all wrote in unison, and it really gave us a surge. It allowed each individual to breathe. This song helped me come to accept that I am whatever people say, and that’s OK. There was an instant feeling of relief once I realized that.

4. DANNY NEDELKO
This song came about in the belly of the album. We were in full swing of Joy and the momentum of this song summed up the spirit of our union. I promised Danny [Nedelko, member of Bristol band Heavy Lungs and a Ukrainian immigrant] I’d write a song for him and him me; the tone comes from Danny, and the lyrics came as I thought of his exuberance and how important people like Danny are. I think of this one more as a humane portrait than a political song, but I wanted the two notions to be inseparable.

5. LOVE SONG
We wrote this track as a techno-type tune and I loved it, I wanted to use the dark tone as a vehicle to carry a message of unadulterated love for my partner and embody the strength of vulnerability and compassion. Plus, I love Dirty Dancing.

6. JUNE
I wrote this song for me. It’s the only song where I’ve ever written the lyrics first and will probably remain so. I struggled to see where it would fit on the album because it was so personal, but after hearing the riff Lee [Kiernan, guitarist] wrote, I realized that I did want to show my pain. I wanted to illuminate the importance of grieving parents’ right to call themselves mothers and fathers. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to play that song live.

7. SAMARITANS
I’m not sure where the music came from for this one; I think I was absent when it came together, but when I heard it for the first time I wrote the lyrics on the spot. I’d just read The Descent Of Man and Grayson Perry’s words struck me with such vigor that it all just came out immediately. I’m very grateful to Perry and other artists who encapsulate such complexity with a sledge-hammer.

8. TELEVISION
I wrote this as a song to my daughter. I wanted to write about the new sense of self-belief I’ve found in celebrating my flaws, but also to motivate my future children in a subversive text.

9. GREAT
Brexit. This song is confused and scared, but offers a withered gesture of reassurance that we are all capable of love. The music was based on a jungle bassline I wrote, we then just f***** around with it. The pure celebration of what we love led me to talk about something I don’t.

10. GRAM ROCK
We wrote this as a concept song: we said yes to every idea proposed musically and then applied that to the subject of two coked-up bankers at a funeral. Yes.

11. CRY TO ME
I’ve always been infatuated by this song. I f****** love it. I thought it’d be a magic b-side to the “Samaritans” single, and one night the instrumentation came whilst listening to Grinderman. Plus, I love Dirty Dancing.

12. ROTTWEILER
This is the oldest song on the album and the perfect closer for an album of self-realization. It’s a war cry where I wash my hands of the torrid hateful tabloid press and put my reading glasses on.


(photo by Turn Up The Volume! Belgium 2017)

nnn

Thanks to npr music and Idles

BASEMENT REVOLVER Reveals The Artists Who Inspired Their Wholehearted Debut Album ‘HEAVY EYES’ Track By Track…

Posted on by JL

27 August 2018

BASEMENT REVOLVER is a Canadian indie trio led by winsome songwriter and striking vox Chrisy Hurn. The band just released their gripping debut LP entitled HEAVY EYES. A highly captivating collection of mixed emotions musings drenched in a turbulent bath of stirring guitar fuzz. Here are songs many of us feel/felt familiar to in one way or another. Intense reflections about being grief-stricken and sorrowful, hurt and confused, lost and puzzled. Amplified and soul-stirring pop heartbreakers you’ll love to have as sonic companions when feeling down and melancholic. This is deeply human music that has the healing force to set your troubled mind free in the end. Comforting music for the twilight hours.

It’s truly a great pleasure for Turn Up The Volume! to have Chrisy here revealing
the artists who influenced Heavy Eyes, track by track. Here we go…

The songs

.
The inspiring artists,
track by track, with Chrisy…

1. BABY
“When I wrote Baby I was heavy into Turnover. I had just watched them open for mewithoutYou in Las Vegas at the Brooklyn Bowl. I think I was just trying to capture
a similar emotion that their music made me feel. It is almost a nostalgic feeling but
like, a sad nostalgia.”

2. JOHNNY
“Johnny was written a few years back, almost three years ago actually, and it was when Archie, Marry Me by Alvvays was playing EVERYWHERE. And what a good, good song to be playing everywhere, may I add. When I heard that song for the first time, I remember thinking, “this is what I have been looking for!”

3. DANCING
“Dancing is a newer song for the band. For a long time we called it Joy Division because we thought the bassline could be from a Joy Division song. We also wrote this one starting from the bassline, it is what shaped the song. I think I was also watching a lot of Stranger Things because it was when the second season came out on Netflix, and yes, I think that is very relevant!.”


Joy Division‘s legendary bass player Peter Hook

4. FRIENDS
“Definitely a Frankie Cosmos inspired song. I was listening to her music
pretty much exclusively at the time and wanted everything to sound like her.”

5. Knocking
“I think when I wrote this song I was going for a Big Thief‘s Mary kind of vibe.
That song is so freaking beautiful.”

Arresting live rendition. Awesome voice

6. JOHNNY PT. 2
“I don’t know if I can pin down who inspired this song. I honestly forget a lot of the
time surrounding its conception because I was very, very sad. I will say that on the
“Sunday drive downtown” where “Johnny” and I broke up, we were randomly listening
to an Adele CD because it was the only CD in my parents’ car. So maybe the memory
of the breakup brought out Adele-like sentiments?”

7. WORDS
“Mmmm… Words was my first venture into writing music with guitar pedals and vocal effects. At the time I was listening to a lot of Youth Lagoon and Wild Nothing. Maybe that somehow got in there?”


Youth Lagoon effects

8. WAIT
“I think Wait was probably somehow inspired by Diet Cig. It is also in drop D
tuning which consequently makes me feel like a badass. I don’t know why, but
it makes me feel a tiiiiny bit metal. I think we just wanted to write a song that
sounded a little bit darker and heavier.”

9. TREE TRUNKS
“Manchester Orchestra most definitely inspired this song. Most definitely.”

Basement Revolver Orchestra live

10. YOU’RE OKAY
“A little bit of Frankie Cosmos, a little bit of  The Weakerthans, and very much cheese went into this song. Also very much crippling self-doubt. We wrote it in a band practice – and the thing I like the most about it is the breakdown that happens in the second chorus. You can thank my days spent as a scene kid, and every hardcore band I used to listen to in high school for that.”

11. HEAVY EYES
“I am gonna say that Dilly Dally inspired me to be a little bit heavier for this one
and to throw on that overdrive. I like playing this song, because the sentiment of
being very tired is very real most of the time for me, and it also makes me feel
tough. I don’t feel like I have to be anything other than myself when we play it live.”


Dilly Dally’s Katie – energetic impact

12. DIAMONDS
“Diamonds was written many moons ago when I was deep into the folk music scene. I was listening to a lot of Valley Maker – please everyone go listen to Valley Maker – and Right Away, Great Captain! at the time. I was a young 19 years old, and unrequited love was the most painful feeling I had ever experienced.”

Thank you Chrisy Hurn!
May the road rise with Basement Revolver!

HEAVY EYES out now and available here.

BASEMENT REVOLVER: Website – Facebook – Twitter

Erste Langspielplatte von Musikgruppe ELEFANT Is Out! Here’s A Track By Track Guide To ‘KONARK UND BONARK’…

Posted on by JL

Everything you always wanted to know about ELEFANT’s album but were afraid to ask…

22 May 2018

Finally, the very-long-awaited lange debut Spielplatte ‘KONARK UND BONARK’ von
das verrückteste Belgische Lebenslied Orchester ELEFANT found its way to our troubled planet! These four misfits, dressed in a modern designed version of Stanley Kubrick‘s
outfit for his Clockwork Orange‘s gang of droogs have some serious shit out now. Just imagine Pink Floyd‘s ‘Dark Side Of The Moon‘ escapade produced by Ennio Morricone
while having a nightmarish LSD trip. Trust me, this is not Scheißmusik! This is the
optimum Armageddon soundtrack. Eine geistig gestörte Aha-Erlebnis! A sort of close encounters of the third kind, whatever that might be. Exactly! Only the band knows
what really fucked up their sick minds when creating this balls-shaking mumbo
jumbo. Only they know the secret to the song’s codes. Only they can clarify what
this mind-cracking ‘Konark und Bonark‘ bollocks is all about…

Ladies, gents and all wicked science-fiction fans, it’s Turn Up the Volume‘s pleasure to welcome, right here the Fürher dieser kranke Musikgruppe who will reveal all enigmas
of ELEFANT’s first baffling record, one by one. Spit it out, Wolfman…

The music…


.
The stories, track by track…

1/ Haven’t Heard Of Yet
“Some time ago I had nodes on my vocal chords. I had surgery and the following night I had to keep silent. That and a bottle gin was a bizarre experience, I wrote some five pages of drunken rant about having to shut up, which was love I haven’t heard of yet. I edited the lyrics and turned it into an a-capella song. In the studio we just jammed on it to what it is now.”

2/ Oh My Dog (Oh Mein Hund)
“When I heard that someone close to us was diagnosed with cancer,
it freaked me out and this popped out. Satie meets Black Sabbath.”

ozzy
Ozzy, Elefant’s invisible fifth member…

3/ Schräg
“I wrote this fairly quickly watching TV. I started with a quote from Wolfgang
Borchert‘s “Der viele viele Schnee“, because I am such a well-read prick. It deals
with the sexy subject Death, that ugly thief that I meet more and more.”

4/ Landman
“This is the last one wrote I for the album. It ended up as an ode to our maecenas and sound engineer Dr. P. Landman. Some lyrics are easy to explain and some you just don’t know what they’re about. Landman is one I can’t figure out what it means. Schizophrenia dealing with your genetic past/psycho-shit/keep coming back smaller and smaller//////….”

5/ Credulity
“This is the hippie song, at least lyrically. It’s the new ‘We are the world‘.
Deliciously naive I wish I was myself.”

we
We were the world, we sounded like shit…

6/ Wie Scharf Ist Dein Messer?
“This song is the result of the alienating vibe and the eery repetitive sounds echoing
in Pre-Op Room. Racing thoughts, sweaty paws as you’re left in the hands of science,
its machinery and disciples. We live in an era where Man and Machine become more
and more intertwined, be it smartphones, bionic implants, robots, or A.I.”

7/ Groan Sweet Groan
“I like this song a lot, because its arrangements just happened. we jammed on it in the studio and this is take 1 shortened to what it is now. Lyrically it’s about the goons in power fucking it up for the rest of us minions.”

8/ Der Publizist
“For this one I tried to use the most dissonant sounds. combined with – according to our keyboardist Stijn – Das Ich-like vocals and lots of humour. This one has the Sherman filterbank all over it.”

9/ Lord Sleep
“What’s that face? Who are you? Where is this room I’m in? Who that face? Who that space, well I recall, I do recall, don’t I?” My grandmother lived her last years becoming more and more demented until she was totally gone. A painful thing to witness.”

Lord Sleep… in motion

10/ A 1000 Smells
“This one is for humanity: you’ve wandered far off…”

11/ 1929
“This is one of the oldest Elefant instrumentals and still a favourite.
It’s a beautiful, moody, almost happy and freaky piece.”

11/ Norsun Muisti
“Another hip dementia inspired song. I am trying to remember
all the things I was trying to forget. Now are you?”

Thank you Wolfman for being our guide!
Thank you ELEFANT for freaking us out…

ELEFANT: Facebook – Bandcamp

(Concert pics by Turn Up The Volume!)