As summer draws to a close there is still time for a sunny sounding single. Wall Of Confusion by French indie/electronic band Fellini Félin share doubts about current relationships and getting older on top of a jumpy backbeat, wirth guairt an keyboards playing catch. Recommended if you like LCD Soundsystem.
A Live One, the first Phish live album comes to red vinyl as a 4-LP set on October 27. Bullmoose has the lowdown (and is hard to reach, because the site can't handle the traffic):
The band produced the album, selecting the material and overseeing the mix to 1/2″ reels in March-April 1995 with Ed Thacker and his team of engineers at Bearsville Studios. A Live One contains twelve original Phish compositions, five of which were previously unreleased: “Gumbo,” “Slave To The Traffic Light,” “Wilson,” “Simple,” and “Harry Hood.” The record was sequenced to approximate a two-set Phish performance and every track from the more-than-two-hour collection is notable – from the thirty-plus minute “Tweezer” to the “Wilson” opener from the band’s first Madison Square Garden show. “Gumbo” featured an updated version of Phish’s own Giant Country Horns. More than twenty years later, A Live One “Stash” and “Harry Hood” still rank among both songs’ top performances. After five studio albums, A Live One captured and conveyed the magic of the band’s improvisational live shows, and every song on the record (except “Montana”) has remained a staple of Phish shows ever since. A Live One was released by Elektra June 27, 1995 on CD and cassette. It was the first Phish album to be certified gold and remains Phish’s best selling album. The laquers for the vinyl edition were cut from the 1/2” flat masters by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering. Each LP is pressed onto 180g vinyl and includes a free MP3 download of the album transferred from vinyl.
London indie rockers FAERS contemplate the future of guitar bands on their new single Last Of Our Kind. prospects are not that good nowadays in a world that has embraced mediocre R&B, assembly-line made dance and rap, but they will be damned if they don't try.
They sound sad, but they are letting their guitars ring like their heroes The Maccabees. Swedish producer took them under his wing and gave the track a pop polish during the recording sessions in Gothenburg.
Belgian blues quintet Barking at the Mailman have secured their first show in The Netherlands. They have been added to next year's edition of Winterfest in Eindhoven on January 27.
Seafang keep shoegaze garage alive from their HQ at Saint Petersburg, FL. Their latest EP Solid Gold touches base with the Jesus and Mary Chain, Belly and the Bangles. Vocalists Heidi and Stacey sound like they have been recently rediscovered on a couple of underground singles that will make collector's drool. Spoiler: those 7" do in fact exist.
The barely legal catchiness of Summertime and the rumbling Motorcycle Song are a throwback to more innocent times. Remember when you could go "paaapapapaas" with a smile on your face like they do in the title track?
Dutch multi-instrumentalist Mark Lohmann takes his experimental one-man project Moon Moon Moon on the road in The Netherlands. He is working on new material, still standing at "the crossroads of soundscapes and storytelling folk songs."
Live dates:
Aesthesys are a Russian band who play a mix of instrumental post-rock and modern classical music. The Moscovites have just released their new single Marea (Italian for "tide"), capturing the never-ending flow of the water in two songs. Marea crescente (rising tide) builds up to a crescendo, with the drums keeping them grounded, locked-in twin guitars swirls, a jubilant violin and keyboards sounding like a clavinet. They hold back in the slow Bassa marea (low Tide) to make room for the string quartet.
Beck is back with a new single. Dear Life is a taster for his new album Colors. Quirky and poppy he relies on the piano and double-tracked vocals to keep the track moving. A whiff of pyschedelic guitar comes in as the track progresses.
Colors will be released on October 12. He will be on the road in September supporting U2 on their The Joshua Tree Tour 2017 extravangza. Odd billing indeed.
Charlie Miller recorded all 13 Phish Baker's Dozen shows (July 21–23, 25, 26, 28–30 and August 1–2, 4-6) @ @ Madison Square Garden in NYC. They can be downloaded in one swoop from bt.etree.org:
Recording Info:
Schoeps CMC6/MK4 > Sound Devices 744T (24bit/96k) > Samplitude Pro X3 Suite > FLAC/24
Notes:
Recorded by Charlie Miller
Section 2 Row 1 Seat 20 with the mic stand 9 feet high
Chris Kuroda allowed me to set up next to him in the lighting booth
The Vermont jam band will wrap their summer tour with thee shows @ Dick’s Sporting Good Park in Commerce City, Colorado (September 1-3).
Dutch folk noir band The Bullfight are planning to release an as yet untitled live album via Brandy Alexander Recordings by the end of the year. It was recorded in a living room in The Hague on June 18, with no audience present. A new studio album, most likely Chapter 2 of their Shame, Guilt, Deception concept, will be released in 2018.
HCTF review of Shame, Guilt, Deception – individuals chapter I.
Innerviews has an in-depth interview with Steven Wilson. About going more pop on his new album To The Bone:
There were two fundamental things. The first is the need for me to do something new. The least appealing thing to me is the idea of repeating myself. That’s a different stance to take than most artists who tend to make something that works for their audience. They tend to want to repeat the formula and give the fans what they want. It has always been my contention that the really great artists like Miles Davis, Frank Zappa, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, and Kate Bush confronted audience expectations. They all had a need to evolve, change and keep things interesting for themselves. There was never a possibility that I would continue simply making more of the same music.
Guitar virtuoso Kaki King has put up a video of Magazine, recorded at a special show at Cafe 939 in Boston in April 21 this year, accompanied by the 12-piece Porta Girevole Chamber Orchestra. They used arrangements written by DeVotchKa multi-instrumentalist Tom Hagerman and two Berklee students, Takuma Matsui and Shereen Cheong.
Live at Berklee will be released via BirnCORE on September 22. The label is an off-shoot from the student run Berklee Internet Radio Network (Birn). It's available for pre-order.
Watch the new Ride video for Cali, a song from their new album Weather Diaries. The clip was filmed @ Porthmeor Beach, St Ives, Cornwall, UK. Director: Niall Trask.
The shoegaze legends will be on tour in the USA in September, before flying out to Mexico City for a one-of date. Another European tour kicks off in Paris on November 2nd.
All three Phish shows @ Dick’s Sporting Good Park in Commerce City, Colorado (September 1-3) are offered as webcasts. The third night is free:
Join us live from Commerce City, Colorado September 1, 2 and 3 for Phish’s annual summer-closing shows at Dick’s Sporting Good Park. >LivePhish.com will webcast all three nights beginning at 7:30 PM MT.
Colin Robsinson decided to do things differently with the live recording of him supporting Japanese noise/drone guitarist Suzuki Junzo on July 4th @ the Nutclough Tavern in Hebden Bridge, UK. Instead of releasing it as a straight up live album of his one-man band Jumble Hole Clough he took the stereo recording and loaded it into his multitrack set-up, enabling him to add extra bits and pieces with others instruments besides his guitar and drum machine. Paying tribute Frank Zappa he has now released the results as Nutclough & Elsewhere.
Unlucky Man received the most extensive treatment and was turned into freak funk fusion meets metal guitar, with help of his Big Block 454 band mate Mark Joell on keyboards. Long time followers of Robinson will know that he loves a good guitar loop and there are plenty of those in free-flowing ambient funk workouts like Lines In The Landscape and the gentle, almost pastoral Notes In The Margins. His avant-garde inklings are put in perspective with titles like The Mixenden Monkey and He Laughed At Bryan Ferry. Robinson is serious about his music, but that doesn't mean you can't have a laugh.
Punk cabaret band The Dresden Dolls reform for four shows in the Fall. Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione urge their audience to dress to kill to mark the occasion:
Halloween and the act of transforming yourself outwardly to strut your inner, totem-animal are in the very life blood of The Dresden Dolls. From the very first time we played the Paradise in autumn 2003 for our debut album release, we called on our fans and friends to come dressed to the nines for the occasion, and soon it spread worldwide via our most spunky followers in The Brigade. It's a perfect time to celebrate the Ruby Red 40th Anniversary of this classic Boston rock venue, and the 14th Band-iversary of the cities stripiest duo.
UK trio Cascadia Fault Line peddle a mesh of folk vocals wrapped in dream pop. Their latest song, a reworked version of their Firefly demo, is a 101 for swirling less-is-more guitar effects and soft-spoken drums. Lead singer Rachael Dunn sounds like a hybrid of Sandy Denny and Natalie Imbruglia.
NYC based American-Australian neo-new wave duo Surf Rock is Dead knicked a bass sound frrm The Cure, and helped themselves to tons of echo and reverb for their latest single Everything They Said. Once again Kevin Pariso (Chicago)and Joel Witenberg (Melbourne) channel the Eighties with another shot of retro danceable dream pop that doesn't give a fuck about what's hip and happening,
Everything They Said will be available on forthcoming EP We Have No Friends via The Native Sound. The vinyl version (milky clear with red splatter, light blue, Coke bottle clear, white) will contain their SRiD EP as the B-side. Release date: September 22.
The point of jazz is, you do something and then you go on.
Van Morrison
Singer Laura Burhenn of indie pop project The Mynabirds laments the passing time in the piano ballad Golden Age, a track from her forthcoming new album Be Here Now. Video directed by Jason Lester, depicting her as a lounge singer in a cardboard setting.
Multi-instrumentalist Danny Trew Barton has put up another track from EP // IV. his latest Wolf Solent release. See You Leaving is filled with intricate, neo-psychedelic textures, with his totally-at-ease vocals on top.
It may seem a bit odd for producer Steve Albini to produce an album of a Chicago jazz singer, but after receiving a demo in the labeled "Andy Pratt (Not That One)" he was intrigued. Pratt loves rough-around-the-edges sound, preferably captured on and analog equipment, and contacted Albini to see if he was up to it to make an album.
Horizon Disrupted centers around the vocals and Pratt's luscious string quartet arrangements. Don't be afraid that he turned it into a smooth crooner album. Pratt carries a lot of grudges and he isn't afraid to put them to good use. He made a singer-songwriter's jazz album with a rock attitude. it feels good, but it pulls no punches. Trying to pigeonhole this album is futile, like great music should be.
Watch the new Triggerfinger video for Colossus, the title track from their new album. Monsieur Paul shines with a great rumbling bass on this one. The animated clip was made by MOUNTAIN EMULT.
Colossus hits the shops on August 25 thru Mascot Records. It will be available on black and blue vinyl, CD, and through all the usual digital outlets. All pre-orders will be signed by the band.
Ian Anderson will celebrate Jethro Tull's 50th anniversary with a UK tour in April 2018. The band was a groundbreaking progressive act act. They were huge in the USA, playing Madison Square Garden quite a few times. From Prog:
I am not usually a birthday or anniversary kind of guy but, just for once, I won't be a party-pooper either!
I treasure the memories of the earlier years of Jethro Tull repertoire, associated as it is with the adventures of visiting so many countries for the first time to connect with new fans around the world.
And this is a celebration of all the 33 band members who graced our ranks – musicians who brought their talents, skills and styles to bear on the performances live and in the studio.
Watch the Tedeschi Trucks Band tackling the Rolling Stones classic Sweet Virginia. Oliver Wood and Chris Wood helped them out. Recorded live @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, CO - 2017/07/30. Full audience recording on bt.etree.org and Live Music Archive.
Athens, GA band Tunabunny have a knack for capturing big concepts into glorious lo-fi music. Their new double album PCP Presents Alice In Wonderland Jr. tackles the Lewis Carroll classic children's book and The Beatles' self-titled 2LP extravaganza in one big swoop. Ambitious projects like this can either hit a wall, fall apart about halfway after one to many filler tracks or experiment for experiment's sake or- and this is rare - keep going and going and make it to the finish line in one piece triumphantly. After which another spin is in order to hunt down weak sports that might have been missed the first time around. Spoiler alert: they are none.
Mary Jane Hassell, Scott Creney, Brigette Adair Herron and Jesse Stinnard opened all the drawers of their eclectic music collection, made a huge pile and applied the good old mix-and-match method to come up with unexpected combinations, true-and-tried familiar bits of indie rock, a whiff free jazz, funk bass and much. much more. PCP Presents Alice In Wonderland Jr. is a maze set to music, leaving it up to the listeners to find their way out - Nevermind The Cobblestones though. Their is an Oracle whose prediction model is capable of detecting lethal ailments, something nasty could be hiding in those Blackwater Homes, an actress is playing a dead girl in The Rest Of Us, and quite a few drug references (Dream Sugar, Pitocin Enduction Hour) augment the alternate universe atmosphere.
The new Robert Plant album Carry Fire will be released on October 13 via Nonesuch Records. It'shis 11th album as a solo artist. Lead single The May Queen, a mid-tempo acoustic song with an early Seventies folk vibe, can be streamed on YouTube. Among the album's tracks is a cover of Bluebirds Over The Mountain (Richie Valens, Beach Boys), with Chrissie Hynde on vocals.
Screaming blues band Low Society have added a show in Kaiserslautern, Germany @ Kulturzentrum Kammgarn (11/28) to their European Fall tour, supporting blues singer and guitarist Popa Chubby.
Husband and wife Sturgis Nikides (guitar) and Mandy Lemons Nikides (vocals) will once again be joined by their Belgian rhythm section Jacky Verstraeten (bass) and Bart De Bruecker (drums), who also feature prominently on their latest album Sanctified.
Welsh prog rock band Godsticks will release their fourth album Faced with Rage on October 13th via Kscope ((vinyl, CD, digital). The album is available for preorder.
They will be on the road in September, supporting The Pineapple Thief. Frontman Darran Charles will be working double shifts as the second guitarist for the headliner.
Brooklyn electronic downtempo psych duo Drinker inserted a bit of vintage West Coast folk pop on their new single Sinking / Feeling. Singer-songwriter Aaron Mendelsohn and producer-composer Ariel Loh construct their songs like an intricate piece of origami, with unexpected twists and turns leaving the listener wondering about how they did it.
Music is never wrong. You might not like it, but it’s never wrong. It's such a great way of explaining stuff.
Josh Homme
Leeds neo-psych trio The Boxing are sounding fiercely retro on their new single Tame. Singer and guitarist Harrison Warke has all the trappings of an aloof front man, while drummer Charlie Webb and bassist Henry Chatham keep him grounded and make sure he doesn't float into outer space. Driven by an infectious pop melody - including a sly nod to The Cure - the band have a winner on their hands.
The Trey Anastasio Band will embark on a short West Coast Fall tour. They will play in Los Angeles on Halloween, squashing all rumours of a Phish extravaganza this year.
Israeli psychedelic shoegaze trio Vaadat Charigim will be on tour in August and September, playing shows in the UK, The Netherlands and France. Recommended if you like Porcupine Tree and The Jesus and Mary Chain.
Live dates:Watch the new Kim Janssen video for Rama VI (feat. Sallie Harmsen), a track from his latest album Cousins. The Dutch singer-songwriter takes a look at the evasive art of dating.
Israeli experimentalists o.ccult have released the 6th and final single from their forthcoming EP Same. They named the track after themselves and it is the culmination of their previous singles.
Starting out as a moody and frightened composition they slowly reconstruct the track an work to to a happy ending of sorts. Downtempo avant-garde acting as a chrysalis for 21st Century afterparty music.
HCTF review of Hell Mary.
A legendary Peter Gabriel show will be up on YouTube in better quality than the widely circulating video transfers:
On 15 September 1978, Peter Gabriel was recorded live at Grugahalle, Essen in Germany for the now legendary Rockpalast TV programme. We’ve recently been granted the rights to use the footage, so we will be adding tracks from the performance to Peter’s You Tube channel over the next few weeks.
Alt-country singer Eilen Jewell is sharing the title track from her blues covers album, Down Hearted Blues. The Bessie Smith classic got her through her first heartbreak when she was in her teens. The album will be released on September 22nd thru Signature Sounds Recordings.
She is currently on tour in the USA. Europe is next in November.
Watch Afrobeat ensemble The Brighton Beat perform their new song Momentum live @ Sweatshop Studios, Katonah, NY. Co-written by Ryan Nava, who also sings and directed the clip. It's their first ever track with vocals.
The Brighton Beat:
Ryan Nava: vocals
Greg Schettino: guitar
Ray Sullivan: guitar
Matt Graff: congas, shekere
Sammy Wags: drums
Derek Van Wormer: bass
Nat Ranson: rrombone
Joe Natale: baritone sax
Jon Bean: tenor sax
Mark Zaleski: alto sax
Ron Harter:y: trumpet
Freddy "Fuego" Gonzalez: keyboards
HCTF review of Here and Now.
Guitar virtuoso Kaki King played a special show at Cafe 939 in Boston in April 21 this year, accompanied by the 12-piece Porta Girevole Chamber Orchestra. They used arrangements written by DeVotchKa multi-instrumentalist Tom Hagerman and two Berklee students, Takuma Matsui and Shereen Cheong.
The show was recorded and will be released via BirnCORE on September 22. The label is an off-shoot from the student run Berklee Internet Radio Network (Birn).
Live at Berklee is available for pre-order.
Theatrical indie-pop band Gunned Down Horses are sharing another live video. Confess, My Love, Confess... was filmed at their show in their home town Haifa on January 28th 2017. They were joined on stage by a brass section and delivered completely different version of the title track from their debut album.
London based jazzy pop band Organised Scum are back on track with their new single Consultants of Swing moves - after a deliberate false start - through sneering Britpop and psychedelic rock before ending with a monolithic bass and drums coda. And like it says on the tin, it swings too.
Watch the Orkestra Obsolete tackle the New Order classic Blue Monday, using instruments from the 1930s, including a theremin, a musical saw, a harmonium, a prepared piano and a zither.
Graeme MIller, Sven Werner, Nicola Reade and Angus McIntyre wore masks for the occasion. More information about this project on the BBC Arts website.
Jazz band Corbin Andrick & Bonzo Squad have enjoyed a long time residency at The Arrogant Frog in Chicago. Led by sax player Corbin Andrick (his nickname is Bonzo) the band first found its bearings as the houseband at Lilly's, another bar in The Windy City. Agfert road testing their material on stage they cut 22 tracks in two days IV Labs studio for their self-titled debut album, after which they had to kill half of their darlings.
At first Bonzo Squad presents itself as a rather smooth jazz album that even leans to easy listening, gently rotating around the sax-keyboards axis of Andrick and Andrew Lawrence. Things start to get more interesting when bass player Andrew Vogt lays a sexy groove for Pearhofjax as the launch pad for a far more loose approach culminating in a rock guitar solo by Matt Gold. After this all bets are off and they feel free indulge into freaky flute parts for & S and Shack Dog, and invite Samy Language rapper to add some choice words to Bottom's Up.
Jam band Umphrey's McGee have posted a pro-shot video of their late night set at the Bonnaroo Festival in Manchester, TN (2017/06/10). Frank Zombie is mashup medley, including Frankie Goes To Hollywood (Relax) and Pink Floyd (Have A Cigar).
Setlist:
A Thousand Hours play slow, ethereal dreampop. Their debut-full-length Sleep is a soothing trip. Red Collier and Demi Haynes, the band's songwriters, follow the course that was set Dead Can Dance, Propaganda and the Cocteau Twins. They honour the latter with a respectful cover of Crushed.
Sleep is an album that should be played in one sitting. Whether they sing abut nautical misadventure in Shipwreck or an artist dreaming about the spotlights in The Understudy, A Thousand Hours make it sound like it not so bad after all. Blame the wavering keyboards of Nadi Mack for entering an alternate state, with Albert Gresens' bass a lifeline to reality. Recommended listening after a stressful day.
Experimental avant-funk metal trio Primus have a video for The Seven, the lead single from their forthcoming new album The Desaturating Seven (September 29). The Claypool, LaLonde and Alexander line-up last recorded an album over two decades ago, when they released Tales From the Punchbowl in 1995.
Screaming blues band Low Society have added a show in Aalt, Belgium @ Blues @ Cimorné (11/25) to their European Fall tour. Husband and wife Sturgis Nikides (guitar) and Mandy Lemons Nikides (vocals) will once again be joined by their Belgian rhythm section Jacky Verstraeten (bass) and Bart De Bruecker (drums), who also feature prominently on their latest album Sanctified. It's a hometown show for both of them.
Live dates:» screaminblues.com
» Low Society on Facebook
HCTF review of Sanctified.
Baas player Bryan Beller is finally finding the time to work on a new solo album. It will be ""A Modern Progressive Musical Concept" album,. There will 18 tracks in all and he has recorded demos for about half of them so far. From his website:
It's been ten years since I wrote the material that became 2008's Thanks In Advance, my last studio solo album. Many, many things have happened since then, and while I was fortunate to be busy with lots of fulfilling work, a noise was building in the back of my head for years about what my next solo album would look, feel and sound like. That noise became a roar last year, as I realized I was walking around with enough material in my head for not just a new album, but a new double album. And when I refer to what was "in my head", I mean pretty close to the whole thing: The album title, the song titles, the melodies, the sonic textures, the grooves, the album narrative, the sequence, the transitions…everything. It's been a bit odd, as you can imagine.
London electronic trio White Kite make dance floor friendly tunes with smart breaks and above average middle-eights, Their latest single is called Past Life, a funky song with a spot on falsetto during the chorus. A breath of fresh air in genre that is mostly busy chasing its own tail.
Live date:
Norwegian singer Sivert Høyem fulfilled a lifelong dream when he performed two shows at the 2000-year old Herod Atticus Odeon amphitheater at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece last year. On September 29th and October 2nd he played songs from his solo albums and his former band Madrugada, backed by a full band and a string quartet. The shows were recorded an filmed and are now available as a live album and accompanying DVD. Høyem's music is mostly rather mainstream AOR with a few country licks thrown in (My Thieving Heart, Into The Sea). His vocal range allows him to project various moods (joy, heartbreak, anger).
Høyem comes into his own when he gets darker and his musicians get a little breathing room to turn it up. What´s On Your Mind and Give It A Whirl and Moon Landing sound like Nick Cave in a melloe mood, although Høyem's lyrics are no match for his poetic prowess. Live At Acropolis - Herod Atticus Odeon, Athens is a nice souvenir his fan base. It's entertaining, but rather faceless.
Avant-jazz progressive rock trio Evacuate the Earth reach for the stars on their self-titled album, a dystopian sci-fi concept record incorporating such diverse niches as Les Claypool's bass sound, free-form saxophone outbursts, and haunting, Gothic vocals.
The Milwaukee based trio paint a bleak future with this album that sounds a like Philip K. Dick novel set to music. Some undisclosed horrors are announced during The Eyes, followed by far from reassuring announcements in Mayday. When the foes from outerspace gain a foothold, they accompany the ensuing panic and the scrambling to get into a rocket with the 5-part Evacuation Suite.
Phish
2017/08/06
Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
Blues bands are not en vogue right now and bands that play original material have to work twice as hard to be heard or land a gig. Belgium quintet Barking at the Mailman go against the grain with their fierce debut EP Trial & Error, filled with half a dozen fresh sounding, self-penned songs.
They ooze plenty of swagger courtesy of the bands'guitarists Tim Vandenberghe and Sven Huwé, the kick ass rhythm section Koen Denie (drums) and Bart Van der Haegen (bass) and last but not least in-your face vocalist Raissa Peeters, with her mix of PJ Harvey and Baby Jane Kennedy cool. Whether they take it slow with the sexy I Want You of go all-out screaming swamp blues with Wasting Time (note the nod to the Jefferson Airplane guitar sound) they keep the soulful vibe front and center.
Singer Laura Burhenn of indie pop project The Mynabirds takes a stand with her new single Shouting At The Dark, a track from her forthcoming new album Be Here Now. In the video, shot by cinematographer Powell Robinson, she dances alongside her trans and queer friends, something to which only seriously intellectually challenged people could object to.
I thought the jazz scene was very self-indulgent and they were not interested in getting better paid gigs. A pint of beer at the Torrington and all these jazzers would show up to play. I was much more interested in making pop records, which I eventually succeeded in doing. People think that since I could play jazz and complicated time signatures etc., I would prefer that type of music. If you don't particularly like that type of music, it doesn't follow. The type of jazz I liked was from the pre-fusion days. I find that type of jazz (the Miles Davis groups before 'In a Silent Way', for instance, and Rollins and Coltrane) musically much more innovative, satisfying and challenging.
Chris Spedding
Phish
2017/08/05
Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
Living Colour have put up a stream of another track from their forthcoming new studio album Shade. Program doesn't beat around the bush. It's an angry, politically charged hard rock anthem that will ruffle the feathers of Trump supporters.
Americana outsider Johnny Dowd will be supporting avant garage legends Pere Ubu on three of the shows of their MonkeyNet tour in November.
Live dates:Johnny's new record, Twinkle, Twinkle, is being mixed and will be released in December. He will be on tour in Europe in January to promote the release.
» johnnydowd.com
» ubuprojex.com
HCTF review of Execute American Folklore.
LA indie trio Rat Fancy sing sweet songs about sour things on their debut EP Suck A Lemon. Ranging from typical first world problems like I Can't Dance To The Smiths Anymore, a tribute to the cult TV series about the paranormal Beyond Belief and the bittersweet love song About You, the band has an almost childlike innocence.
They couldn't care less if the listeners are able to keep up with them, let alone agree with their lyrics. The title track sums it all up perfectly and is offered as a fast and slowed down version. They have found a way to sound confident about feeling insecure by talking elements from psychedelica, shoegaze and Sixties West Coast and turn it into Lo-fi bedroom recorded pop at its finest.
Phish
2017/08/04
Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
NYC based American-Australian neo-new wave duo Surf Rock is Dead comes close to mainstream dream pop on their new single As If. Kevin Pariso (Chicago)and Joel Witenberg (Melbourne) channel the Eighties like that decade never ended - plenty of echo on the vocals with a good ear for guitar and keyboards dynamics.
As If will be available on forthcoming EP We Have No Friends via The Native Sound. The vinyl version (milky clear with red splatter, light blue, Coke bottle clear, white) will contain their SRiD EP as the B-side. Release date: September 22.
John Cale will perform at Desert Daze Festival in Joshua Tree, CA (October 15-15).
Worchester based quartet HVMM unleash a dose of heavy swamp blues rock on their double A-side single Beggars And Thieves b/w Going Postal. They got hold of a riff for both songs and took it as far they could stretch it, with twin guitars, loud-as-fuck drums and a bass that goes straight for the gut. Recommended if you Led Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy and the Black Keys.
The single is the first taste for their new Talk To Me Like I'm Dead, out on September 1st.
