Band: THE KILLERS(Las Vegas) Active: Since 2001, for 20 years now.
7 studio albums (including the new one)
New album: PRESSURE MACHINE Out: 13 August – order info here
Brandon Flowers (frontman): “I had a lot of time on my hands.
Before I’d normally be gearing up to tour, all of that time has gone
back into writing more songs. It’s been pretty fruitful.”
2022 Tour
My special Killers memory – Brussels, 2004 – max 100 people in a 150 cap. club
Producer: Hal Willner, a longtime Saturday Night Live co-operator. He passed away last year due to complications from COVID-19 at the age of, only, 64. He had just finished working on an all-star T. Rex tribute LP (AngelHeadedHipster came out last September). Furthermore, he was also the driving force behind this VU tribute longplayer.
Here’s the first taster with Kurt Vile covering track 5 Run Run Run. Pretty cool version. Good job, Kurt.
Listen here…
Tracklist…
1. Michael Stipe – “Sunday Morning” 2. Matt Berninger – “I’m Waiting For The Man” 3. Sharon Van Etten – “Femme Fatale” (Feat. Angel Olsen) 4. Andrew Bird & Lucius – “Venus In Furs” 5. Kurt Vile & The Violators – “Run Run Run” 6. St. Vincent & Thomas Bartlett – “All Tomorrow’s Parties” 7. Thurston Moore – “Heroin” (Feat. Bobby Gillespie) 8. King Princess – “There She Goes Again” 9. Courtney Barnett – “I’ll Be Your Mirror” 10. Fontaines D.C. – “The Black Angel’s Death Song” 11. Iggy Pop & Matt Sweeney – “European Son”
Press info: ” ‘The Ultra Vivid Lament’ is both reflection and reaction;
a record that gazes in isolation across a cluttered room, fogged by often
painful memories, to focus on an open window framing a gleaming vista
of land melting into sea and endless sky.
Lead-single: ORWELLIAN “The track is about the battle to claim meaning, the erasing of context within
debate, the overriding sense of factional conflict driven by digital platforms
leading to a perpetual state of culture war”.
Band:GOAT Who: Formed in 2012, the experimental band’s anonymous members
claimed to hail from the remote and cursed village of Korpilombo in northern
Sweden, where inhabitants had for centuries been devoted to a form of voodoo
introduced by a traveling witch doctor – there was no one else on earth quite
like them. They have delivered 3 studio albums so far.
New album: HEADSOUP Info: A globetrotting acid trip of an album, collecting rarities spanning
the band’s career – standalone singles, B-sides and two brand new tracks.
These out-of-this-world voodoo priests remind me of those other weirdos,
Louisiana-based The Residents as both bands wear masks since day 1, and
we have no clue who they really are. But that’s actually the only similarity as
The Residents are a one-eyeball-prog-rock-opera ensemble who is totally
unpredictable but harmless, whereas GOAT is a mind-bewitching psych-o-delic
tribe who put a spell on you and you never know what happens next. Spooky!
Ahead of Headsoup comes new single Queen Of The Underground. A puzzling-electrifying trance groove moving like a vicious snake climbing out of its basket. King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard will love this to death.
Artist: JOHN GRANT
Born in Buchanan, Michigan, U.S. – now living in Iceland, Europe. Who: Former member of alt-rockers The Czars (1994–2006) / so far
he made 4 solo albums.
Info:John Grant arrived at the studio to begin recording his fifth solo record,
Boy from Michigan, on 1st March 2020. “So, basically right at the beginning of
the pandemic nightmare and all throughout the Presidential campaign,” he says.
For Grant, lockdown was largely academic. He is insular by nature and removed
himself from his native America in 2011, decamping to Iceland. From afar, the US
Presidential race loomed large, though, igniting potent memories of the country
which shaped John Grant. 2020’s temporary destabilising of world order suits
Boy from Michigan’s intent just fine.
John Grant on working with Cate Le Bon for this longplayer: “Cate and I
are both very strong-willed people. Making a record is hard on a good day.
The mounting stress of the US election and the pandemic really started to get
to us by late July and August last year. It was at times a very stressful process
under the circumstances, but one which was also full of many incredible and
joyful moments.”
NME says: “The electro-pop artist’s latest punctuates intense and dark
examinations of contemporary masculinity with moments of breathtaking
beauty… It’s an album that does not only confronts the cult of masculinity
and its endless tentacles, but ultimately overcomes it.”
Score: 5/5.
Turn Up The Volume: From nostalgia and heavyhearted reveries to
upbeat electro grooves (The Rusty Bull / Rhetorical Figure / Best In Me).
When you, like me, live in an uncertain weather country (Belgium) it’s
great to have records like these to keep your moods swings company
on rainy summer days.
Keylines: “The American Dream is not for weak soft-hearted fool The American
Dream can cause scarring / and some nasty bruising / The American Dream is
not for weak soft-hearted fools” (from title track ‘Boy From Michigan.”
Band: THE UGLY KINGS (Melbourne, Australia) Who: A passion-filled gang that offers a stripped down but
powerful injection of energy and emotion to the modern rock
scene; formulating what can only be described as ‘Power Blues’
FFO: The Doors, Jack White, Black Sabbath, Arctic
Monkeys, Royal Blood, Rival Sons, The Dead Weather
New single: TECHNODRONE
A blistering powerhouse slam dunk. Beat-your-ass drums,
flaming guitars, high-octane vocals, massive tune. Heavy
rock emotions in motion. Touchdown!
Can you tell me how am I supposed to feel
I’m losing sight of everything that’s real
When you’re hypnotised left standing like a stone
Like a disillusioned technicolour drone
Album: INTRUDER– his 19th (!) longplayer Released: 21st May 2021 – Order info here
Gary Numan: “Intruder looks at climate change from the planet’s
point of view. If Earth could speak, and feel things the way we do, what
would it say? How would it feel? The songs, for the most part, attempt to
be that voice, or at least try to express what I believe the earth must feel
at the moment.”
NME says: “in 2021, and with ‘Intruder’, he’s chiming with the times – and
sounding thrillingly relevant in the process… The electro-pop legend has seen
and done it all in 45 years – so when he says the planet’s knackered, as on this
bruised concept album, you’d better listen.” Full review here. Score: 4/5.
Turn Up The Volume: Numan still is an electric friend. His Tubeway Army
still is well oiled. No time yet to retire and leave us in your spaceship, Gary.
Band: TEENAGE FANCLUB (Scotland) Active: Since 1989 / 11 albums (so far)
Album: ENDLESS ARCADE – 11th LP Released: 30 April 2021 – order info here
Pitchfork:“The Scottish band’s eleventh album feels uniquely pensive,
even tentative. Nearly every song will have you humming along, though
few seem designed to grab your attention…. This thematic territory, self-
doubt, aging, nostalgia—spans the record and can sometimes make
Endless Arcade feel like a gloomy concept album.”
Full review here. Score: 7/10.
Turn Up The Volume: This could easily be their 5th or 10th album.
The jangly Teenage vibe still remains the Byrds same. Melancholic,
ruminant, melodic, and easy-listening. The band reflects on – a not
so bright – present and future. Despite the dreamy pop timbre, the
Scots share a lot to think about, while you hum along.
Singles: Everything Is Falling Apart / Home / I’m More inclined
Band: BLACK MIDI Who: Young tremendously compelling guitar-noise-explorers
from London scoring one of the best albums of 2019 with their
otherworldly debut Schlagenheim.
Info:Black Midi began writing music for a new album in late 2019, not long
after the release of their debut studio album, Schlagenheim, in June of that
year. The band chose to have a less improvisational approach to writing their
second studio album, in contrast to Schlagenheim which was crafted around
jam sessions.[1] Prior to the recording sessions for the album, guitarist Matt
Kwasniewski-Kelvin took a break from the band, citing a need to focus on his
mental health, he took part in the writing sessions for Cavalcade, however.
Who: For nearly two decades, Xiu Xiu has made music for the moments when life’s harsh realities meet its existential mysteries. Singer and songwriter Jamie Stewart’s lyrics are often veiled in layers of metaphor, but his delivery always suggests urgency and intimacy, that there’s a universal truth that cuts deep. Xiu Xiu makes beautiful music for hard times.
Album: OH NO Order info: here Release: 26 March 2021
Info: An album of duets, with Stewart sharing the spotlight with an array of guests who have made an impact on him personally and musically. With, among others, Sharon Van Etten, Circuit des Yeux’s Haley Fohr, Liz Harris, Alice Bag, Chelsea Wolfe, Owen Pallet, and Twin Shadow’s George Lewis Jr. The record was born out of anguish and isolation. It is the sound of finding one’s place in the world after the destructive powers of jealousy and mistrust make any map seemingly unreadable.
