Press-info: Underscored by a formidable horn section and ragged, sardonic delivery,
the band bear passing resemblance to post-punk and no-wave acts like The Pop Group, Birthday Party and Lounge Lizards.
It’s the weaving of older, more traditional influences: choral, folk, country, Latin, Weimar cabaret, cruise-ship-crooning, into the fabric of their music
that sets them apart.
The album is produced by Grammy award-winning producer and mixer Craig Silvey (Arcade Fire, Florence and The Machine, Baxter Dury, REM, Kronos
Quartet, Sam Fender).”
NYC’s post-punk celebs INTERPOL aren’t the most productive band on
this planet. In their almost 30-year career, they released only 7 albums…
thus far.
But that’s gonna change. They just announced details of full-length number 8.
It’s titled THE MIRRORS WEIGHS A TON and will come our way on August 28th.
Tracklist and pre-order info here.
In 2012, the band abruptly finished their journey following
the untimely death of co-vocalist and bassist Adam MCA Yauch
due to cancer.
Now 14 years later, as previously reported, co-vocalist/songwriter MIKE D (né Michael Louis Diamond, 60 years ago in NYC) returns solo.
He’ll share his debut LP THANK YOU on August 28th. More details here.
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Mike D: “It’s been so much fun making this music with people I love and I have grown to
really appreciate in our collaboration. And I just hope it’s fun for others and not overly serious, because let’s be real, I’m releasing this music into a very strange and dark and power-fixated world that really devalues art and feelings and compassion and empathy and equality.”
“We so much loved all three of us being in a band with each other for Beastie Boys. When Yauch died, it was an extremely sad time for me so making music was just not on the table. Then being a dad was something I put myself into and eventually I worked on the ‘Beastie Boys Book’ with Adam (‘Ad-Rock’ Horovitz] and that really helped both of us as we were really able to shine a light on our past together.”
Artist: FREDDIE GIBS Who: The 43-year old
rap star from Indiana.
Album: YOU ONLY DIE 1CE
The 2024’s deluxe edition of that LP, his 5th solo one. Gibbs has also 4 collaborative full-lengths to his credit.
Clash Music said: “This new album seems to sum up where the rapper
finds himself, out there in the trenches, caught between two sides, working
out his own peculiar place in the world.”
Riff machine OSEES led by barnstormer in shorts John Dwyer dropped,
without foreplay or warning, new music. 5 tracks, 32 minutes, under
the caption OFF COURSE.
Is it an album, is it an EP?
According to Wikipedia and EP contains more tracks than a single but fewer
than an album (8-10). Contemporary EPs usually contain up to eight tracks
and have a playing time of 15 to 30 minutes.
I call it an EP, Osees‘ general calls it an album.
He’s the boss. So an album it is.
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Dwyer: “We went back to an older method of writing for this one. We jammed
and jammed and jammed. I took the tapes home and ironed out some mutant
tunes. We went back into the studio and burned them to tape live and then I
took it home and did the vocals. Spice is always nice.
Mixed it all up in the cauldron and thus we have a strange brew indeed Floating in
the smoke we have: A couple long jams, a couple short jams and a finale that’ll dump
a bucket of ear worms on you (reminiscent of “the axis”?) Dip your toe in organ rock
and roll.”
TUTV: Whatever format it is. I played Off Course 5 times in a row. Yes, to my
ears it’s one of the best things Osees did in recent years. No riff mania, but 60/70’s
psych prog rock inspired work-outs, a bit of Deep Purple in their symphonic phase.
Mind-bending and trance-inducing, coming close to the extravagant trips
of that other ultra-productive team King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard,
27 albums in 16 years.
The Trick is my fav track. An instrumental, Krautrock-like, motorik piece
that thrives on organ and hyperkinetic drumming. Flabbergasting. Mind
you, all 32 minutes have a dumbfounding effect.
Their 3rd LP. A concept one with a 24-page original comic
book created with longtime collaborator Rich Ragsdale.
Story: “Set in the once-glorious land of Cliptopia, where a sentient A.I. known
as Cliptron and his army of robots are resourcing everything, then turning it all
into Clipnex brand paperclips, the album follows young artist Hippard O. Campus Jr.
as he rebels against his father, Hippard Sr. (owner of the CLIPNEX corporation and
creator of CLIPTRON).
With help from salty sea-dog Colonel O’Coren, Hipp embarks on a fantastical adventure
to stop Cliptron’s cold, chrome heart from converting the world, humans included, into paperclips.”
Hipp’s quest leads across the sea to the Isle of Lucidity, where the all-wise Ministry of Manatees guide him to the Great Parrot-Ox, whose Golden Egg of Empathy is the only
thing that can bring understanding and emotion to Cliptron.
Claypool: “The album was over three years in the making and was the most labor intensive recording I have ever been involved in. The results are something Shiner and I are very proud
of. A relevant concept piece accompanied by a colorful, phantasmic comic book.”
Lennon: “The record is a cautionary tale of what could be in store for humanity if we continue to favor machines over men. It is a tale of a technocracy eclipsed by paperclips; a young man destined to unravel the fabric of his father’s folly, and a sacred feathered Goddess (played by WILLOW), who holds the egg-shaped key to their future.”
TUTV: Lucy in the sky with diamonds? Well, sort of. This unusual pair take you on a trip where they treat you with a mix of 60s dream pop, prog-rock, and rainbow psychedelia. Mind you, it’s an accessible record to go eight miles high to, but it goes a long way, 1 hour and 2 minutes, and the fictional story in play isn’t a simple one to get hold of.
En route, this retro-addicted duo play round elaborated poppy tunes that are dressed
up with yesteryear orchestrations, and plenty of space for Claypool’s bass extravaganza.
After a couple of spins, I’m not sure yet if this is a bad, good, or very good LP (certainly not a delirium one). I know that doesn’t make sense, I suppose. But yes, I’m confused, so I’ll get back to my headphones and see what happens this time.
Press info: “An record called Roses would be concerned with romantic gestures.
Across the ten tracks, intimate spaces and stages of love are captured with a nostalgic, vaseline-coated lens. Candles burn inside red glass as lovers get close in a leather booth.
Celebrity headshots gaze down like angels in a restaurant. Elsewhere, carnations are pressed in a black book and dancers pull each other close. Widowspeak is a band that
riffs on big emotions without being too self-serious. The sweetness, even silliness, of an extended limerent phase that becomes as all-consuming as a pulpy trade paperback.
Cars and their drivers serve as a way to talk about codependency. If music can simultaneously be naturalistic and noir, saturated and lush, that is Widowspeak.
They’re a band that knowshow to set a scene.”
Far Out Magazine says: “Conjuring dreamy, folksy nuggets from life’s unassuming
corners, Widowspeak herald a charming return, delicately rippling with slowcore
ambience and a touching songcraft that carries Roses a respectable distance.”
TUTV: OMG, I’m lazy today. If I say that this record sounds like Mazzy Star backed
by Neil Young on acoustic and electric guitar I guess you know what to expect.
Cincinnati‘s rock bigshots THE AFGHAN WHIGS fronted by generalGreg Dulli, celebrate their 40th anniversary as a band. They’ll share the milestone with their fans on the road (1st leg already done) and with a new album, their 10th.
It’s named SOFT CONTROL, and it’ll hit the streets on August 21th. Pre-order info here.
Press info: “The new album is testament to the old David Bowie quote, where he describes aging as “an extraordinary process where you become the person you always
should have been.”
By now, the volatile years of band leader Greg Dulli’s youth have been substituted with a wry and self-aware satori. The edge and sensitive temperament remain but the unchecked infernos of ego and rage no longer threaten personal immolation. And Dulli’s vocals are simultaneously the strongest and most delicate that they’ve ever been.
The album captures The Afghan Whigs’ unique ability to conflagrate stab you in your
nose bone guitars and cubist refractions of soul and R&B. There is a reconciliation of loud volume and somber reflections, living life with joy and purpose while keeping one eye on the clock and remaining aware of the absurdity. ”
Greg Dulli: “I’ve worked hard on my inner peace. I was an angry young man, and it fueled
my art, ambition and my drive. I wouldn’t change anything because I can’t. But as I got into photography and other art forms, I realized that I’m not in competition with anyone, including myself. Now, I know what I’m doing and there’s a quiet confidence that comes with being able
to back it up.”
Ahead of the LP’s launch, the Whigs offered us 3 singles (thus far).
– HOUSE OF I –
As Dulli described the track
‘an uptempo banger’.
– DUVATEEN –
Dulli: “When I finished “Duvateen it felt like my life passing before my eyes.
The references to the teacher chasing me down the hall reminded me of my childhood. Digging a hole was an obvious allusion to a grave. I’m at a precipice in life where I can look behind and clearly see the forest of my youth, but I can also see the path to the other side. And it’s going to inform what I do for the rest of my days.”
Who: Hefty Belgian noise-rock outfit, formed in 2020 in Liege, Belgium.
They produce an explosive mix of punk energy, raging guitar riffs and
infectious melodies, fully formed and bristling with a wiry tension.
TUTV: If your hungry ears go bonkers on muscular noiz rock they will
definitely (not maybe) gonna tremble and shake when this freak show
hits them with fiery force.
Empty Head produce riff-roasting racket with a merciless tsunami of titanic tunes,
brutally melodic at its core, that challenge the flexibility of the Richter scale when
all sledgehammers’ Herculean choruses kick in.
All their banging belters are revved up by chainsaw riffs and explosive drum/bass fuel, while the maniacal vocalist – 4 lungs and iron pipes – brings tons of kickass gusto and sinewy ardency to the table. These motherrockers are going places. They groove and
move like hell, without looking back, and so should you. Don’t forget to fasten your seatbelt.
Smahing debut.
Hey, It It Anita, Ronker, and Sons, watch your backs. Empty Head are coming fast, real fast, like a comet out of control. First Belgium, and then, as cokehead Tony Montana sneers in Scarface, “the world, chico, and everything in it“. Comprendido, all you punked-up music junkies out there? You better you bet.
You can’t shut up the imperishable Russian collective of political and feminist activists PUSSY RIOT and their global fanbase. This year marks their 15th year of opposition against the Kremlin tyranny.
A couple of weeks ago, the clamorous PRs showed up at the Venice Biennale, the so-called “Olympics of the art world”, timed deliberately, to coincide with Russia‘s controversial return to the event. The stunt made headlines globally.
Mastermind and driving force since day one is NADYA TOLOKONNIK, who spent two years, along with fellow pussy riotiours Yekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alyokhina, in a Russian jail for hooliganism motivated by religious hatred after her protest performance
in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour church in 2012.
Thus far, they have expressed their fierce discontent through several mixtapes,
a series of barbed-wire singles, and countless live protests in their home country, Ukraine, and the Western world.
And on June 12th, the debut album, titled CYKA, will be unleashed.
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Ahead of it, you can start screaming and shouting
in the streets to these 2 bloodthirsty singles.
– DISOBEY –
Nadya: “I wanted to do a classic punk song, in old school Pussy Riot style. I’ve been trying to be polite, writing letters via the Council of Europe, writing directly to the board, to the president, to people in the art world, and dead ends everywhere.
– CANDY DOPAMINE –
“This song is kind of a love & hate song to prescription and designer drug culture.
It started with my dependence on anti depressants, but it’s also looking at everyone
now mentalhealthmaxxing and looksmaxxing via pills and injections.
It’s not a judgement, it’s just an observation and my personal experience with
these things is that I have to be in a long term relationship with them for my
PTSD and depression.”
