Alexander Laurence's Blog, page 1186
June 17, 2020
Announcing The Sled Island Lemonade Stand
ANNOUNCING THE SLED ISLAND LEMONADE STANDMAKING THE BEST OF IT WITH LIVESTREAMS FROM SUDAN ARCHIVES AND WAXAHATCHEE, COMPILATIONS OF UNRELEASED SONGS FROM CALGARY ARTISTS, A MIXTAPE EXCHANGE, DJ AND COMEDY SETS, FILM SCREENINGS, ART EXHIBITIONS, PLAYLISTS AND MORE COMMUNITY INITIATIVES!
(June 17, 2020 - Calgary, AB) With the summer festival season more or less cancelled, including Sled Island 2020, today we're announcing how we're going to squeeze every ounce of goodness from the bag of lemons we were given with a brand new initiative: The Sled Island Lemonade Stand. From Monday, June 22 until Sunday, June 28, we will be doing what we can to tip our hat to the festival week that would have been with a series of free or accessibly-priced livestreams, film screenings, comedy and DJ sets and varied activities taking place both online and in-person. By no means a simple online or socially-distanced version of the festival we had previously planned, nor a replacement for it, the Lemonade Stand tries to reinforce the pillars of the Sled Island experience over the years: fun, discovery, community and the celebration of thoughtful and vital music and art. MUSICWe are thrilled to announce that our 2020 guest curator, electronic and R&B-infused violinist/vocalist Sudan Archives, will join us for a special free livestream concert and Q&A. Sled Island alum, Waxahatchee, will also be performing her perfectly-penned and highly confessional album Ivy Tripp in its entirety online as part of her five-week livestream series covering her entire discography. As part of the week, Sled Island is likewise thrilled to announce the upcoming release of two digital compilations: The Sled Island Lemonade Stand Vol. 1 & 2, comprising over 40 (!) previously unreleased songs from every genre written and recorded by Calgary artists in or just before quarantine. Featured artists include The Shiverettes, DRI HIEV, Sinzere, Samantha Savage Smith, Astral Swans, Teafannie, Chron Goblin, Selci and many more! The compilation drops Monday, June 22 as a "pay what you can" release. An essential part of every Sled Island is having other festival-goers tip you off to must-hear acts. Today, we are launching the Sled Island Mixtape Exchange to fill that gap as best we can. Sign up now to create and receive a personalized mixtape or playlist from other festival lovers, and maybe, just maybe make a new friend in the process? FILMWe are thrilled to have partnered with the Calgary Underground Film Festival to present a special drive-in screening of Uncle Peckerhead at the Big Rock Brewery, and online screenings of This Film Should Not Exist, a documentary about The Oblivians and Country Teasers, and Five Bucks At The Door, a brand new documentary about a legendary Thunder Bay music venue, complete with pre-show Sled-curated music video packages. We are also excited to announce a special co-presentation screening of Quickdraw Animation Society's year-in-review package. COMEDYWe're excited to announce Virtual Laugh-con 2020, our streaming comedy program featuring Telefilm New Voices award winner Brandon Ash-Mohammed, Tallboyz and Baroness von Sketch Show writer Meg MacKay and adept comic scene stealer Jackie Pirico! All this plus Calgary's own Mollie Risa. ARTThe festival is proud to announce Simone Saunders' TUF(t) LOVE, an exhibition of colourful hand-tufted textiles exploring identity, culture and a Black heritage. The festival will also be helping to promote the launch of The National Music Centre's newly launched Speak Up, an online exhibition in recognition of National Indigenous People Day. OTHER ONGOING COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES:In addition to these streams and initiatives, Sled Island is presenting a series of daily activities ranging from in-person and online DJ sets and a podcast produced by CJSW, to Sled-curated music and video playlists and reading lists from Shelf Life Books and Sue's Stokvel, to a specially curated rack filled with Sled Island's history at Sloth Records. We are encouraging our community to pair their day's schedule with delicious beer from one of seven Alberta breweries (Annex Ale Project, Blindman Brewery, Dandy Brewing Company, Eighty-Eight Brewing Co., Highline Brewery, Inner City Brewing, Last Best Brewery), because, though lemonade can be thirst-quenching, it's got nothing on beer. We have also designed a Sled Island Bike Scavenger Hunt, encouraging everyone to get off their couches or away from their screens and venue hop across the city to see standout photos of memorable sets from the festival's archives for a chance to win Sled swag! Lastly, as a multi-venue festival that was built on partnerships, Sled Island knows how essential small businesses are to a thriving community. Choosing how and where we spend our money is a great way to contribute to both building the society we want and evening the playing field. During the week of The Lemonade Stand and beyond, we are asking our community to support (within their means) not just the venues and community partners that typically provide the spaces and resources that make the festival possible, but also Black-owned businesses. All of these organizations deserve not just to survive, but thrive. Thank you for supporting the local community! Thanks for stopping by the Sled Island Lemonade Stand, June 22-28, 2020! The full lineup and schedule is available at SledIsland.com.
(June 17, 2020 - Calgary, AB) With the summer festival season more or less cancelled, including Sled Island 2020, today we're announcing how we're going to squeeze every ounce of goodness from the bag of lemons we were given with a brand new initiative: The Sled Island Lemonade Stand. From Monday, June 22 until Sunday, June 28, we will be doing what we can to tip our hat to the festival week that would have been with a series of free or accessibly-priced livestreams, film screenings, comedy and DJ sets and varied activities taking place both online and in-person. By no means a simple online or socially-distanced version of the festival we had previously planned, nor a replacement for it, the Lemonade Stand tries to reinforce the pillars of the Sled Island experience over the years: fun, discovery, community and the celebration of thoughtful and vital music and art. MUSICWe are thrilled to announce that our 2020 guest curator, electronic and R&B-infused violinist/vocalist Sudan Archives, will join us for a special free livestream concert and Q&A. Sled Island alum, Waxahatchee, will also be performing her perfectly-penned and highly confessional album Ivy Tripp in its entirety online as part of her five-week livestream series covering her entire discography. As part of the week, Sled Island is likewise thrilled to announce the upcoming release of two digital compilations: The Sled Island Lemonade Stand Vol. 1 & 2, comprising over 40 (!) previously unreleased songs from every genre written and recorded by Calgary artists in or just before quarantine. Featured artists include The Shiverettes, DRI HIEV, Sinzere, Samantha Savage Smith, Astral Swans, Teafannie, Chron Goblin, Selci and many more! The compilation drops Monday, June 22 as a "pay what you can" release. An essential part of every Sled Island is having other festival-goers tip you off to must-hear acts. Today, we are launching the Sled Island Mixtape Exchange to fill that gap as best we can. Sign up now to create and receive a personalized mixtape or playlist from other festival lovers, and maybe, just maybe make a new friend in the process? FILMWe are thrilled to have partnered with the Calgary Underground Film Festival to present a special drive-in screening of Uncle Peckerhead at the Big Rock Brewery, and online screenings of This Film Should Not Exist, a documentary about The Oblivians and Country Teasers, and Five Bucks At The Door, a brand new documentary about a legendary Thunder Bay music venue, complete with pre-show Sled-curated music video packages. We are also excited to announce a special co-presentation screening of Quickdraw Animation Society's year-in-review package. COMEDYWe're excited to announce Virtual Laugh-con 2020, our streaming comedy program featuring Telefilm New Voices award winner Brandon Ash-Mohammed, Tallboyz and Baroness von Sketch Show writer Meg MacKay and adept comic scene stealer Jackie Pirico! All this plus Calgary's own Mollie Risa. ARTThe festival is proud to announce Simone Saunders' TUF(t) LOVE, an exhibition of colourful hand-tufted textiles exploring identity, culture and a Black heritage. The festival will also be helping to promote the launch of The National Music Centre's newly launched Speak Up, an online exhibition in recognition of National Indigenous People Day. OTHER ONGOING COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES:In addition to these streams and initiatives, Sled Island is presenting a series of daily activities ranging from in-person and online DJ sets and a podcast produced by CJSW, to Sled-curated music and video playlists and reading lists from Shelf Life Books and Sue's Stokvel, to a specially curated rack filled with Sled Island's history at Sloth Records. We are encouraging our community to pair their day's schedule with delicious beer from one of seven Alberta breweries (Annex Ale Project, Blindman Brewery, Dandy Brewing Company, Eighty-Eight Brewing Co., Highline Brewery, Inner City Brewing, Last Best Brewery), because, though lemonade can be thirst-quenching, it's got nothing on beer. We have also designed a Sled Island Bike Scavenger Hunt, encouraging everyone to get off their couches or away from their screens and venue hop across the city to see standout photos of memorable sets from the festival's archives for a chance to win Sled swag! Lastly, as a multi-venue festival that was built on partnerships, Sled Island knows how essential small businesses are to a thriving community. Choosing how and where we spend our money is a great way to contribute to both building the society we want and evening the playing field. During the week of The Lemonade Stand and beyond, we are asking our community to support (within their means) not just the venues and community partners that typically provide the spaces and resources that make the festival possible, but also Black-owned businesses. All of these organizations deserve not just to survive, but thrive. Thank you for supporting the local community! Thanks for stopping by the Sled Island Lemonade Stand, June 22-28, 2020! The full lineup and schedule is available at SledIsland.com.
Mina Tindle Announces Album 'SISTER' + Releases First Singles
Mina Tindle Announces New Album SISTER Out October 9th via 37d03d
Releases First Singles “Lions” & “Belle Pénitence”
(Cover Art by Indira Dominici)Today Mina Tindle, the project of Parisian singer/songwriter Pauline De Lassus, has announced the release of her first body of work in six years with her new album SISTER, her third full-length due out October 9, 2020 via 37d03d. In a departure from the radiant alt-pop of De Lassus’ first two albums, SISTER brings that depth and contrast to a more heavily contoured yet beautifully nuanced sonic backdrop. The album was mostly made in New York City with producer Thomas Bartlett (Joan as Police Woman, Yoko Ono, Florence + the Machine), with additional production by Sufjan Stevens and Bryce Dessner.
SISTER is an album populated by mythic creatures of all kinds: lions on parade, lovers turned to cannibals, kings and Sirens and women with wings. Like any great fabulist, she threads her storytelling with a fragile wisdom, revealing essential truths about all the danger and wildness within the human heart. With each moment elevated by her spellbinding vocal work—a gift she’s shown in recording and touring as a singer for The National—SISTER ultimately makes for a transportive listening experience, at turns impossibly dreamlike and profoundly illuminating.
“With my first two records I was on a quest, searching for the meaning of life and love and absolutely everything, but in making this album I felt much more grounded,” says De Lassus, who notes that becoming a mother closely informed her songwriting on SISTER. “Instead of feeling nostalgic for the past or worried about the future, I’m living more fully in the present, and it makes all the colors feel deeper and more contrasted than they were before.”
Listen to the singles “Lions” HERE and “Belle Pénitence” HERE. Pre-order the album HERE.
On “Lions,” with its silken rhythms and shimmering grooves, De Lassus offers up a bit of soft-hearted encouragement in the face of self-doubt: “If the roads are made for a parade/Go march with the lions.” She adds, “The idea is that you need to keep going, even if sometimes you feel like you’re just pretending to be brave. It’s all about the march.” And with “Belle Pénitence,” she shares a tender love letter to her husband (The National’s Bryce Dessner), twisting the track’s mood of lovely surrender with some fantastically brutal hunting imagery rendered in her native tongue.
SISTER TracklistJessaLionsGive A Little Love (Feat. Sufjan Stevens)Indian SummerLouisBelle PénitenceFire & SunTriptyqueIs Anything Wrong
(photo credit: Indira Dominici)
A work of both extraordinary subtlety and storybook grandeur, SISTER expands on the graceful musicality first displayed on her 2012 full-length debut with Taranta, produced with famed French songwriter JP Nataf. The album drew critical acclaim from outlets like Pitchfork and her French language single “Pan” achieved widespread success at French Radio as well as regular play-listing at international stations such as Los Angeles’s KCRW. Soon after wrapping up more than two years of touring in support of Taranta, she returned with her 2014 sophomore effort, the critically-acclaimed Parades, produced by Olivier Marguerit. De Lassus later appeared as a featured soloist on The National’s 2019 album I Am Easy to Find and toured extensively with the band. During the last few years as she was writing and recording SISTER, De Lassus and her Mina Tindle project have also been an integral part of the PEOPLE Festivals at the historic Berlin Funkhaus in 2016 and 2018, where she worked with a vast range of musicians and artists in the community.
Releases First Singles “Lions” & “Belle Pénitence”
(Cover Art by Indira Dominici)Today Mina Tindle, the project of Parisian singer/songwriter Pauline De Lassus, has announced the release of her first body of work in six years with her new album SISTER, her third full-length due out October 9, 2020 via 37d03d. In a departure from the radiant alt-pop of De Lassus’ first two albums, SISTER brings that depth and contrast to a more heavily contoured yet beautifully nuanced sonic backdrop. The album was mostly made in New York City with producer Thomas Bartlett (Joan as Police Woman, Yoko Ono, Florence + the Machine), with additional production by Sufjan Stevens and Bryce Dessner.SISTER is an album populated by mythic creatures of all kinds: lions on parade, lovers turned to cannibals, kings and Sirens and women with wings. Like any great fabulist, she threads her storytelling with a fragile wisdom, revealing essential truths about all the danger and wildness within the human heart. With each moment elevated by her spellbinding vocal work—a gift she’s shown in recording and touring as a singer for The National—SISTER ultimately makes for a transportive listening experience, at turns impossibly dreamlike and profoundly illuminating.
“With my first two records I was on a quest, searching for the meaning of life and love and absolutely everything, but in making this album I felt much more grounded,” says De Lassus, who notes that becoming a mother closely informed her songwriting on SISTER. “Instead of feeling nostalgic for the past or worried about the future, I’m living more fully in the present, and it makes all the colors feel deeper and more contrasted than they were before.”
Listen to the singles “Lions” HERE and “Belle Pénitence” HERE. Pre-order the album HERE.
On “Lions,” with its silken rhythms and shimmering grooves, De Lassus offers up a bit of soft-hearted encouragement in the face of self-doubt: “If the roads are made for a parade/Go march with the lions.” She adds, “The idea is that you need to keep going, even if sometimes you feel like you’re just pretending to be brave. It’s all about the march.” And with “Belle Pénitence,” she shares a tender love letter to her husband (The National’s Bryce Dessner), twisting the track’s mood of lovely surrender with some fantastically brutal hunting imagery rendered in her native tongue.
SISTER TracklistJessaLionsGive A Little Love (Feat. Sufjan Stevens)Indian SummerLouisBelle PénitenceFire & SunTriptyqueIs Anything Wrong
(photo credit: Indira Dominici)A work of both extraordinary subtlety and storybook grandeur, SISTER expands on the graceful musicality first displayed on her 2012 full-length debut with Taranta, produced with famed French songwriter JP Nataf. The album drew critical acclaim from outlets like Pitchfork and her French language single “Pan” achieved widespread success at French Radio as well as regular play-listing at international stations such as Los Angeles’s KCRW. Soon after wrapping up more than two years of touring in support of Taranta, she returned with her 2014 sophomore effort, the critically-acclaimed Parades, produced by Olivier Marguerit. De Lassus later appeared as a featured soloist on The National’s 2019 album I Am Easy to Find and toured extensively with the band. During the last few years as she was writing and recording SISTER, De Lassus and her Mina Tindle project have also been an integral part of the PEOPLE Festivals at the historic Berlin Funkhaus in 2016 and 2018, where she worked with a vast range of musicians and artists in the community.
VIDEO AGE Announce New Album 'Pleasure Line' out 8/7 on Winspear + Share Title Track
VIDEO AGEANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM PLEASURE LINEOUT 8/7 ON WINSPEARSHARE ALBUM’S TITLE TRACK
Photo Credit: Alex H. Payne - download high res here
Today New Orleans’ Video Age announce their third album, Pleasure Line, set for release on August 7th via Winspear, and share the album’s title track. Following their 2016 debut Living Alone and their 2018 sophomore Pop Therapy, songwriting partners Ross Farbe and Ray Micarelli recorded and self-produced their forthcoming album with bandmates, Nick Corson and Duncan Troast.
To celebrate the announcement, the band have shared the bright, love-centric “Pleasure Line,” listen HERE. The track follows the previously-released, funk-inspired track “Shadow On The Wall.”
Video Age on the track,"Pleasure Line is a song about discovery. A space where we can really start to see ourselves, and see others; where we can open up to the possibility of deeper love. The pleasure line is a new beginning."
(Album artwork by Nick Corson - download high res here)
Tracklisting:1. Pleasure Line2. Maybe Just Once3. Blushing4. Aerostar5. Comic Relief6. Sweet Marie7. Shadow On The Wall8. That Can’t Be9. Meet Me In My Heart10. Good To Be Back
Restlessness is the first step towards pleasure. We make comfort out of discomfort, pleasure out of pain. That journey isn’t always a straight line, but at least we’re going somewhere real. “I had to move, Lord I couldn’t be still” is the unsettled way that Video Age’s new album and title track, Pleasure Line, begins. But as the song unfolds, it uplifts us into a romantic space of possibility and love.
Just as “love” is both a noun and a verb, Pleasure Line is both a road to be traveled and the act of crossing that road. Singer and multi-instrumentalist Ross Farbe says, “Once you cross that threshold and become vulnerable in love, there’s a whole new challenge. There’s a reason that song comes first on the album, because the rest of the songs exist in that place.” These catchy, memorable songs radiate big “glass half-full” energy.
Video Age’s third album, due out from Winspear on August 7, 2020, pairs neon-bright 80s pop melodies with a vast range of influences (including Janet Jackson, David Bowie, and Paul McCartney) to create an optimistic sound all their own. The influences vary song to song, but they’re all tinted with the same rosy hue, and Ross says, “I’m often trying to create a more idealized version of the world I’m in.” Video Age’s first two albums were about loneliness and discovering oneself, but Pleasure Line takes on a whole new attitude, considering both Ross and songwriting partner Ray Micarelli are getting married this year (just a few weeks apart from each other, too). “We’re feeling the love,” Ray says, laughing.
But these aren’t expressions of one-dimensional puppy love—this is euphoria with depth, ecstasy with complications. In the twinkling “Comic Relief,” Ross sings, “I know the world is killing me / I love you baby, can’t you see / Ain’t nothing but a comedy.” And in the funk-inspired “Shadow on the Wall,” Ross sings, “I got the gloom, baby, covering me / Cuz you’re a cruel silhouette as could be.” Darkness is always lurking somewhere beneath happiness, but in the Video Age, even melancholy sounds like something you can dance to.
The songwriting duo has been playing music together for the past ten years after meeting in college—Ray says he was initially drawn to Ross’ “old school cadence” and their shared love for dancefloor hits. Experimentation and play is crucial to their approach, as is collaboration. Joined by band members and multi-instrumentalists Nick Corson and Duncan Troast, Video Age recorded the album together in Ross’ New Orleans home studio.
Pleasure Line is a salve that protects against cynicism—listening to this album, you can’t help but feel the world around you is full of romantic potential. In the hands of Video Age, even the mundanities of touring are transformed into a mood-lifting ode to their 1995 white “Aerostar.” When asked how he manages to stay so positive on the road, Ray says, “Playing music is a joy and a privilege.” That kind of sincerity bleeds from every song on this album, creating not only nostalgia for good times past, but also hope for a better future. On the last song, “Good to Be Back,” Ross sings, “I’ve made my mistakes / I live and I learn / That people can change.” The song is meant to sound like a theme song to a 70s sitcom, and you can almost see Ross and Ray opening the door and smiling at the camera: “What can I say, it’s good to be back.”
Pleasure Line is out 8/7 via Winspear. Pre-order on “Purple Royalty” LP, CD, or tape here.The album will also be available on Rough Trade exclusive "Blushing Red" vinyl, pre-order here.
Pleasure Line “Purple Royalty” LP - pre-order here.
Previous Praise for Video Age:
“Something quite effortless.. there's a real understanding of music history with them” - Matt Wilkinson, Beats 1
“music that taps into a vein of early ’80s synth-pop...all rubbery grooves with a dusty sheen, and it makes them one of those bands looking back to the early ’80s” - Stereogum
“...melancholic lyrics riding the wave of bouncing, bubbling synths.” - Paste Magazine
“futuristic pop that is firmly grounded in its early eighties sensibility...inherent tendency to explore the range of the weirder pop spectrum.” - The Line of Best Fit
"Shadow On The Wall” is a bouncy, synth-pop bop...their funkiest tune to date, punctuated by a drifting guitar solo around the 2:00 mark." - American Songwriter
Follow Video Age:Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Bandcamp
Photo Credit: Alex H. Payne - download high res hereToday New Orleans’ Video Age announce their third album, Pleasure Line, set for release on August 7th via Winspear, and share the album’s title track. Following their 2016 debut Living Alone and their 2018 sophomore Pop Therapy, songwriting partners Ross Farbe and Ray Micarelli recorded and self-produced their forthcoming album with bandmates, Nick Corson and Duncan Troast.
To celebrate the announcement, the band have shared the bright, love-centric “Pleasure Line,” listen HERE. The track follows the previously-released, funk-inspired track “Shadow On The Wall.”
Video Age on the track,"Pleasure Line is a song about discovery. A space where we can really start to see ourselves, and see others; where we can open up to the possibility of deeper love. The pleasure line is a new beginning."
(Album artwork by Nick Corson - download high res here)Tracklisting:1. Pleasure Line2. Maybe Just Once3. Blushing4. Aerostar5. Comic Relief6. Sweet Marie7. Shadow On The Wall8. That Can’t Be9. Meet Me In My Heart10. Good To Be Back
Restlessness is the first step towards pleasure. We make comfort out of discomfort, pleasure out of pain. That journey isn’t always a straight line, but at least we’re going somewhere real. “I had to move, Lord I couldn’t be still” is the unsettled way that Video Age’s new album and title track, Pleasure Line, begins. But as the song unfolds, it uplifts us into a romantic space of possibility and love.
Just as “love” is both a noun and a verb, Pleasure Line is both a road to be traveled and the act of crossing that road. Singer and multi-instrumentalist Ross Farbe says, “Once you cross that threshold and become vulnerable in love, there’s a whole new challenge. There’s a reason that song comes first on the album, because the rest of the songs exist in that place.” These catchy, memorable songs radiate big “glass half-full” energy.
Video Age’s third album, due out from Winspear on August 7, 2020, pairs neon-bright 80s pop melodies with a vast range of influences (including Janet Jackson, David Bowie, and Paul McCartney) to create an optimistic sound all their own. The influences vary song to song, but they’re all tinted with the same rosy hue, and Ross says, “I’m often trying to create a more idealized version of the world I’m in.” Video Age’s first two albums were about loneliness and discovering oneself, but Pleasure Line takes on a whole new attitude, considering both Ross and songwriting partner Ray Micarelli are getting married this year (just a few weeks apart from each other, too). “We’re feeling the love,” Ray says, laughing.
But these aren’t expressions of one-dimensional puppy love—this is euphoria with depth, ecstasy with complications. In the twinkling “Comic Relief,” Ross sings, “I know the world is killing me / I love you baby, can’t you see / Ain’t nothing but a comedy.” And in the funk-inspired “Shadow on the Wall,” Ross sings, “I got the gloom, baby, covering me / Cuz you’re a cruel silhouette as could be.” Darkness is always lurking somewhere beneath happiness, but in the Video Age, even melancholy sounds like something you can dance to.
The songwriting duo has been playing music together for the past ten years after meeting in college—Ray says he was initially drawn to Ross’ “old school cadence” and their shared love for dancefloor hits. Experimentation and play is crucial to their approach, as is collaboration. Joined by band members and multi-instrumentalists Nick Corson and Duncan Troast, Video Age recorded the album together in Ross’ New Orleans home studio.
Pleasure Line is a salve that protects against cynicism—listening to this album, you can’t help but feel the world around you is full of romantic potential. In the hands of Video Age, even the mundanities of touring are transformed into a mood-lifting ode to their 1995 white “Aerostar.” When asked how he manages to stay so positive on the road, Ray says, “Playing music is a joy and a privilege.” That kind of sincerity bleeds from every song on this album, creating not only nostalgia for good times past, but also hope for a better future. On the last song, “Good to Be Back,” Ross sings, “I’ve made my mistakes / I live and I learn / That people can change.” The song is meant to sound like a theme song to a 70s sitcom, and you can almost see Ross and Ray opening the door and smiling at the camera: “What can I say, it’s good to be back.”
Pleasure Line is out 8/7 via Winspear. Pre-order on “Purple Royalty” LP, CD, or tape here.The album will also be available on Rough Trade exclusive "Blushing Red" vinyl, pre-order here.
Pleasure Line “Purple Royalty” LP - pre-order here. Previous Praise for Video Age:
“Something quite effortless.. there's a real understanding of music history with them” - Matt Wilkinson, Beats 1
“music that taps into a vein of early ’80s synth-pop...all rubbery grooves with a dusty sheen, and it makes them one of those bands looking back to the early ’80s” - Stereogum
“...melancholic lyrics riding the wave of bouncing, bubbling synths.” - Paste Magazine
“futuristic pop that is firmly grounded in its early eighties sensibility...inherent tendency to explore the range of the weirder pop spectrum.” - The Line of Best Fit
"Shadow On The Wall” is a bouncy, synth-pop bop...their funkiest tune to date, punctuated by a drifting guitar solo around the 2:00 mark." - American Songwriter
Follow Video Age:Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Bandcamp
No Joy shares new single & lyric video for "Nothing Will Hurt" from forthcoming Joyful Noise LP
No Joy shares new single & lyric video for "Nothing Will Hurt" from forthcoming Joyful Noise LP, Motherhood
LYRIC VIDEO: "Nothing Will Hurt" -
YouTube / Streaming Services
Today Montreal’s No Joy shares the second single, “Nothing Will Hurt”, from their forthcoming album. Motherhood out on August 21 st via Joyful Noise / Hand Drawn Dracula. Melding detuned arpeggios, Berlin school synths, slapped bass, and seemingly infinite vocal facets, “Nothing Will Hurt” is available now on all music services.
“The demo of this song started as a slow Industrial burner built on samples of me screaming,” explains Jasamine White-Gluz. “Once brought into the studio, the song found new life; our mission in the studio was that no idea was too weird to try. That led to us squishing Bananas into very expensive microphones to get textured percussion noises, shoving kitchen knives into guitar necks to create a perfect slide guitar sound and adding some Primus-inspired slap bass.”
The accompanying lyric video was filmed at Ferme du Domaine Quinchien, a Quebec organization that saves and rehabilitates farm animals, including the Motherhood cover
goat Piquette.
Bio:
No Joy’s relentless sonic permutations are evidence of frontperson and principal songwriter
Jasamine White-Gluz’s insatiable desire to grow. The Montréal-based project began a decade
ago as e-mail-traded riffs; subsequent albums showcased a penchant for delay-saturated
jangle, industrial distortion, and sludgey drones over disco beats. White-Gluz, feeling too reliant on her primary instrument, ditched the guitars and detoured to modular electronica for a 2018 EP composed with Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3’s Pete Kember).
For No Joy’s first full length in five years, White-Gluz took what she learned from synthesis,
reincorporated guitars, and produced an album that is not a departure from No Joy’s early
shoegaze, but a stylistically omnivorous expansion that ekes into trip hop, trance and nu-metal. Motherhood is the culmination of years composing outside of her comfort zone, and a return to DIY recording with a leveled-up expertise in production. Touring with genre-divergent artists has honed the band’s comfortably multifarious sound; No Joy picked up post-hardcore fans on the road with Quicksand, and ambient techno fans on gigs with Baths. “As long as people are open minded about music, they can hear different things,” explains White-Gluz, “Maybe because there are a lot of layers.”
“A lot of layers” may be an understatement. Lead single “Birthmark” combines the ‘90s dance
rock of Republica with phasing fuzz à la Deftones’ brand of loud-quiet-loud. “Dream Rats”
(featuring White-Gluz’s sister, Alissa, of deathcore supergroup Arch Enemy) manages to cram synth choir, blast beats, cowboy leads, and signal-jammed shredding into a radio-friendly three and a half minutes. “Nothing Will Hurt” melds detuned arpeggios, Berlin school synths, slap bass, and seemingly infinite vocal facets. Throughout are loving nostalgic nods to the records White-Gluz adored on their release twenty years ago--Massive Attack, Sneaker Pimps, No Doubt.
Collaborative, exploratory fun hallmarks No Joy’s discography, and Motherhood is no exception. Jorge Elbrecht (Ariel Pink, Sky Ferreira, Japanese Breakfast) returns in his role as co-producer and multi-instrumentalist. The band’s touring sound engineer Madeleine Campbell, who authors the Women In Sound zine, came on as engineer alongside Chris Walla (Death Cab for Cutie). Drummer Jamie Thompson (Islands, Esmerine) translated rhythmic ideas into hard-hitting performance, and brought in drum machines of his own. Frenetic shredder Tara McLeod (Kittie) makes her No Joy recorded debut, contributing not only guitars but banjos. Somehow plastic clarinet, scrap metal, skits, bongos and an EMS Putney made the mix. Songs went from laptop demos to labyrinthine recordings, tracked primarily at fellow Montrealers Braids’ Studio Toute Garnie. White-Gluz laid down the vocals at home, which allowed for experimentation with ethereal harmonies and shrouded ad libs.
White-Gluz hadn’t read Sheila Heti’s Motherhood when she wrote and titled this record, but
when she did, the narrative parallels between the two projects were “like looking into a mirror.” “Will I regret not opening my insides out?” she sings on “Primal Curse,” during which she reads an optimistic letter her mom wrote as a teenager to her future kids. “Time is critical, and you have to make decisions that are extremely time sensitive and your body doesn’t care,” she explains. “It’s a lot of seeing myself through my mother’s experiences, and the physicalness of a body getting older.” The album also investigates the implications of her parents’ aging on her role as their child, as on the DJ-scratching wah groover “Four.”
Heti’s book’s central conceit is an open-ended pondering of whether dedication to writing is
more significant than the desire to have children. No Joy doesn’t definitively answer this
existential quagmire, either--how could anyone? Instead, Motherhood is a beautifully dense
exploration that proves how thoughtful, thorough music can translate into art that is rich, vast and alive. -Bio by Sadie Dupuis
No Joy
Motherhood
(Joyful Noise / Hand Drawn Dracula)
Release Date: Aug. 21, 2020
Pre-order here
Track List:
Birthmark
Dream Rats (feat. Alissa White-Gluz)
Nothing Will Hurt
Four
Ageless
Why Mothers Die
Happy Bleeding
Signal Lights
Fish
Primal Curse
Kidder
NO JOY LINKS:
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
Patreon
Bandcamp
LYRIC VIDEO: "Nothing Will Hurt" -
YouTube / Streaming Services
Today Montreal’s No Joy shares the second single, “Nothing Will Hurt”, from their forthcoming album. Motherhood out on August 21 st via Joyful Noise / Hand Drawn Dracula. Melding detuned arpeggios, Berlin school synths, slapped bass, and seemingly infinite vocal facets, “Nothing Will Hurt” is available now on all music services.
“The demo of this song started as a slow Industrial burner built on samples of me screaming,” explains Jasamine White-Gluz. “Once brought into the studio, the song found new life; our mission in the studio was that no idea was too weird to try. That led to us squishing Bananas into very expensive microphones to get textured percussion noises, shoving kitchen knives into guitar necks to create a perfect slide guitar sound and adding some Primus-inspired slap bass.”
The accompanying lyric video was filmed at Ferme du Domaine Quinchien, a Quebec organization that saves and rehabilitates farm animals, including the Motherhood cover
goat Piquette.
Bio:
No Joy’s relentless sonic permutations are evidence of frontperson and principal songwriter
Jasamine White-Gluz’s insatiable desire to grow. The Montréal-based project began a decade
ago as e-mail-traded riffs; subsequent albums showcased a penchant for delay-saturated
jangle, industrial distortion, and sludgey drones over disco beats. White-Gluz, feeling too reliant on her primary instrument, ditched the guitars and detoured to modular electronica for a 2018 EP composed with Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3’s Pete Kember).
For No Joy’s first full length in five years, White-Gluz took what she learned from synthesis,
reincorporated guitars, and produced an album that is not a departure from No Joy’s early
shoegaze, but a stylistically omnivorous expansion that ekes into trip hop, trance and nu-metal. Motherhood is the culmination of years composing outside of her comfort zone, and a return to DIY recording with a leveled-up expertise in production. Touring with genre-divergent artists has honed the band’s comfortably multifarious sound; No Joy picked up post-hardcore fans on the road with Quicksand, and ambient techno fans on gigs with Baths. “As long as people are open minded about music, they can hear different things,” explains White-Gluz, “Maybe because there are a lot of layers.”
“A lot of layers” may be an understatement. Lead single “Birthmark” combines the ‘90s dance
rock of Republica with phasing fuzz à la Deftones’ brand of loud-quiet-loud. “Dream Rats”
(featuring White-Gluz’s sister, Alissa, of deathcore supergroup Arch Enemy) manages to cram synth choir, blast beats, cowboy leads, and signal-jammed shredding into a radio-friendly three and a half minutes. “Nothing Will Hurt” melds detuned arpeggios, Berlin school synths, slap bass, and seemingly infinite vocal facets. Throughout are loving nostalgic nods to the records White-Gluz adored on their release twenty years ago--Massive Attack, Sneaker Pimps, No Doubt.
Collaborative, exploratory fun hallmarks No Joy’s discography, and Motherhood is no exception. Jorge Elbrecht (Ariel Pink, Sky Ferreira, Japanese Breakfast) returns in his role as co-producer and multi-instrumentalist. The band’s touring sound engineer Madeleine Campbell, who authors the Women In Sound zine, came on as engineer alongside Chris Walla (Death Cab for Cutie). Drummer Jamie Thompson (Islands, Esmerine) translated rhythmic ideas into hard-hitting performance, and brought in drum machines of his own. Frenetic shredder Tara McLeod (Kittie) makes her No Joy recorded debut, contributing not only guitars but banjos. Somehow plastic clarinet, scrap metal, skits, bongos and an EMS Putney made the mix. Songs went from laptop demos to labyrinthine recordings, tracked primarily at fellow Montrealers Braids’ Studio Toute Garnie. White-Gluz laid down the vocals at home, which allowed for experimentation with ethereal harmonies and shrouded ad libs.
White-Gluz hadn’t read Sheila Heti’s Motherhood when she wrote and titled this record, but
when she did, the narrative parallels between the two projects were “like looking into a mirror.” “Will I regret not opening my insides out?” she sings on “Primal Curse,” during which she reads an optimistic letter her mom wrote as a teenager to her future kids. “Time is critical, and you have to make decisions that are extremely time sensitive and your body doesn’t care,” she explains. “It’s a lot of seeing myself through my mother’s experiences, and the physicalness of a body getting older.” The album also investigates the implications of her parents’ aging on her role as their child, as on the DJ-scratching wah groover “Four.”
Heti’s book’s central conceit is an open-ended pondering of whether dedication to writing is
more significant than the desire to have children. No Joy doesn’t definitively answer this
existential quagmire, either--how could anyone? Instead, Motherhood is a beautifully dense
exploration that proves how thoughtful, thorough music can translate into art that is rich, vast and alive. -Bio by Sadie Dupuis
No Joy
Motherhood
(Joyful Noise / Hand Drawn Dracula)
Release Date: Aug. 21, 2020
Pre-order here
Track List:
Birthmark
Dream Rats (feat. Alissa White-Gluz)
Nothing Will Hurt
Four
Ageless
Why Mothers Die
Happy Bleeding
Signal Lights
Fish
Primal Curse
Kidder
NO JOY LINKS:
Patreon
Bandcamp
Nigerian superstar Yemi Alade debuts video for "BOYZ"
NIGERIAN SUPERSTAR YEMI ALADE DEBUTS VIDEO FOR “BOYZ”FIFTH LP FORTHCOMINGYEMI CONTRIBUTED TO BEYONCÉ’S
THE LION KING: THE GIFT, FIRST FEMALE AFRICAN ARTIST TO REACH 100 MILLION PLAYS ON YOUTUBE
Photo credit: Hashtrup Remilekun
June 17, 2020—Award-winning Nigerian superstar Yemi Alade—who most recently contributed two tracks to Beyoncé’s
The Lion King
companion album—debuts the video for her latest single, “BOYZ,” today—watch here.The uptempo Afropop track, which Okayafrica praises for its “booming production” courtesy of frequent collaborator Vtek, is the first new music from Yemi this year and is taken from her forthcoming fifth LP.Poised for a U.S. breakthrough year, Yemi Alade is an artist, actress and entertainer of Yoruba and Igbo descent who has released four albums: King of Queens in 2014—whose hit single “
Johnny
” launched her to worldwide fame and has reached more than 100 million views on YouTube, Mama Africa (The Diary of an African Woman) in 2016, Black Magic in 2017 and Woman of Steel in 2019. Yemi also notably contributed two tracks to The Lion King: The Gift, curated by Beyoncé, and has collaborated with a number of global stars including Angelique Kidjo and Rick Ross.Yemi’s breakout single “Johnny” made her the first African female artist to earn over 100 million views on Youtube and Vevo and is the most viewed video by an African female artist ever. From 2014 to 2016, she won the MTV Africa Music Award for Best Female twice and was a two-time nominee for Best International Act at the BET Awards and the MOBO Awards. With a massive social media following of nearly 15 million, partnerships with global brands like L’Oréal and Coca-Cola and numerous magazine cover shoots, Yemi Alade is one of the most ubiquitous names in African music. Her music has been lauded by Rolling Stone, The Guardian, Essence, The FADER and many more.
THE LION KING: THE GIFT, FIRST FEMALE AFRICAN ARTIST TO REACH 100 MILLION PLAYS ON YOUTUBE
Photo credit: Hashtrup RemilekunJune 17, 2020—Award-winning Nigerian superstar Yemi Alade—who most recently contributed two tracks to Beyoncé’s
The Lion King
companion album—debuts the video for her latest single, “BOYZ,” today—watch here.The uptempo Afropop track, which Okayafrica praises for its “booming production” courtesy of frequent collaborator Vtek, is the first new music from Yemi this year and is taken from her forthcoming fifth LP.Poised for a U.S. breakthrough year, Yemi Alade is an artist, actress and entertainer of Yoruba and Igbo descent who has released four albums: King of Queens in 2014—whose hit single “
Johnny
” launched her to worldwide fame and has reached more than 100 million views on YouTube, Mama Africa (The Diary of an African Woman) in 2016, Black Magic in 2017 and Woman of Steel in 2019. Yemi also notably contributed two tracks to The Lion King: The Gift, curated by Beyoncé, and has collaborated with a number of global stars including Angelique Kidjo and Rick Ross.Yemi’s breakout single “Johnny” made her the first African female artist to earn over 100 million views on Youtube and Vevo and is the most viewed video by an African female artist ever. From 2014 to 2016, she won the MTV Africa Music Award for Best Female twice and was a two-time nominee for Best International Act at the BET Awards and the MOBO Awards. With a massive social media following of nearly 15 million, partnerships with global brands like L’Oréal and Coca-Cola and numerous magazine cover shoots, Yemi Alade is one of the most ubiquitous names in African music. Her music has been lauded by Rolling Stone, The Guardian, Essence, The FADER and many more.REMO DRIVE share new single "A Flower and a Weed" - 'A Portrait of an Ugly Man' out next Friday on Epitaph
REMO DRIVE RELEASE NEW SINGLE "A FLOWER AND A WEED"
A PORTRAIT OF AN UGLY MAN OUT JUNE 26 ON EPITAPH RECORDS
“this one's built for blasting with the windows down” - BROOKLYN VEGAN
“they’re ready to start wooing new fans over the radio…Ode to Joy 2 almost sounds like an Arctic Monkeys ballad” - CONSEQUENCE OF SOUND
“Star Worship continues on the indie-rock trend, a track that sounds more like Modest Mouse than Modern Baseball” - UPROXX
“more theatrical, Erik Paulson’s symphonic vocals soar over his brother Stephen’s funky bass line” - FLOOD
“Remo Drive are back and louder than ever” - NEW NOISE MAGAZINE
Press Photo By Connor Peck Remo Drive hit us with another massively catchy indie rock ballad, “A Flower and a Weed” from their forthcoming album. With its acrobatic guitar work, deeply self-referential lyrics and off-the-walls energy, A Portrait of an Ugly Man calls back to the dextrous, eccentric sound that helped the band – brothers Erik (vocals, guitar) and Stephen (bass) Paulson – explode onto the scene back in 2017. Self-produced and mixed, A Portrait of an Ugly Man feels all at once familiar and fresh. Taking shape in their parent’s basement in Minnesota, the space breathed a looseness into the songs, while the freedom of the sessions left the band able to explore the next evolution of their sound.
LISTEN + SHARE “A FLOWER AND A WEED”: SPOTIFY | BANDCAMP | APPLE | YOUTUBE
A slice of tremolo-heavy classic rock filtered through the lens of the gunslinging American West, A Portrait of an Ugly Man finds Remo Drive truly in their element – both physically and sonically. Whereas the Paulsons filtered their buoyant songwriting through the concise lens of storytellers like Bruce Springsteen and The Killers on Natural, Everyday Degradation, A Portrait of an Ugly Man is more spontaneous, bolstered by the same charm and levity that made their debut, Greatest Hits, such an underground favorite.
The loathsomeness Paulson explores on the album certainly reflect less glamorous aspects of both his psyche and that of others, but when they’re cut with his quick wit and self-deprecation, they seem less like an actual indictment and more of an embrace of all of life’s imperfection and absurdity. In turning the mirror back at themselves in this way, Remo Drive have learned a lot about who they really are: A Portrait of an Ugly Man is an album that doesn’t seek to minimize important subjects like mental health or self-worth, but rather welcome them in and accept them as part of what it means to be human.
A Portrait of an Ugly Man is out digitally and on vinyl via Epitaph Records next Friday, June 26. To keep up with Remo Drive and touring updates, visit their website here. For more info and to pre-order, go here.
A Portrait of an Ugly Man Track Listing:
1 - A Guide To Live By2 - Star Worship (Official Video)3 - Dead Man4 - If I’ve Ever Looked Too Deep In Thought5 - The Ugly Man Sings6 - True Romance Lives7 - Ode to Joy 2 (Official Video)8 - The Night I Kidnapped Remo Drive9 - A Flower and a Weed (Official Lyric Video)10 - Easy as That
Keep up with Remo Drive: Web | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
A PORTRAIT OF AN UGLY MAN OUT JUNE 26 ON EPITAPH RECORDS
“this one's built for blasting with the windows down” - BROOKLYN VEGAN
“they’re ready to start wooing new fans over the radio…Ode to Joy 2 almost sounds like an Arctic Monkeys ballad” - CONSEQUENCE OF SOUND
“Star Worship continues on the indie-rock trend, a track that sounds more like Modest Mouse than Modern Baseball” - UPROXX
“more theatrical, Erik Paulson’s symphonic vocals soar over his brother Stephen’s funky bass line” - FLOOD
“Remo Drive are back and louder than ever” - NEW NOISE MAGAZINE
Press Photo By Connor Peck Remo Drive hit us with another massively catchy indie rock ballad, “A Flower and a Weed” from their forthcoming album. With its acrobatic guitar work, deeply self-referential lyrics and off-the-walls energy, A Portrait of an Ugly Man calls back to the dextrous, eccentric sound that helped the band – brothers Erik (vocals, guitar) and Stephen (bass) Paulson – explode onto the scene back in 2017. Self-produced and mixed, A Portrait of an Ugly Man feels all at once familiar and fresh. Taking shape in their parent’s basement in Minnesota, the space breathed a looseness into the songs, while the freedom of the sessions left the band able to explore the next evolution of their sound.
LISTEN + SHARE “A FLOWER AND A WEED”: SPOTIFY | BANDCAMP | APPLE | YOUTUBEA slice of tremolo-heavy classic rock filtered through the lens of the gunslinging American West, A Portrait of an Ugly Man finds Remo Drive truly in their element – both physically and sonically. Whereas the Paulsons filtered their buoyant songwriting through the concise lens of storytellers like Bruce Springsteen and The Killers on Natural, Everyday Degradation, A Portrait of an Ugly Man is more spontaneous, bolstered by the same charm and levity that made their debut, Greatest Hits, such an underground favorite.
The loathsomeness Paulson explores on the album certainly reflect less glamorous aspects of both his psyche and that of others, but when they’re cut with his quick wit and self-deprecation, they seem less like an actual indictment and more of an embrace of all of life’s imperfection and absurdity. In turning the mirror back at themselves in this way, Remo Drive have learned a lot about who they really are: A Portrait of an Ugly Man is an album that doesn’t seek to minimize important subjects like mental health or self-worth, but rather welcome them in and accept them as part of what it means to be human.
A Portrait of an Ugly Man is out digitally and on vinyl via Epitaph Records next Friday, June 26. To keep up with Remo Drive and touring updates, visit their website here. For more info and to pre-order, go here.
A Portrait of an Ugly Man Track Listing:1 - A Guide To Live By2 - Star Worship (Official Video)3 - Dead Man4 - If I’ve Ever Looked Too Deep In Thought5 - The Ugly Man Sings6 - True Romance Lives7 - Ode to Joy 2 (Official Video)8 - The Night I Kidnapped Remo Drive9 - A Flower and a Weed (Official Lyric Video)10 - Easy as That
Keep up with Remo Drive: Web | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Maggie Miles shares new single "Hilary Duff" and luminous EP 'Swing Your Concerns'
MAGGIE MILES SHARES NEW LUMINOUS EPSWING YOUR CONCERNS
NEW SINGLE “HILARY DUFF” OUT TODAY
LISTEN TO SWING YOUR CONCERNS AND “HILARY DUFF” HERESEE YAMAHA ‘WAY UP’ FEAT MAGGIE MILES
“Glowing… showcases a Maggie-Rogers-meets-Clairo level of pop.”Variance Magazine
“Maggie Miles may be a newcomer on the scene, but her thunderous voice and her ability to put so much meaning behind one song show that she's a force in the making.”TheNewNine
“[Maggie] creates the perfect atmosphere for getting all in your feels and sorting things out.” Idobi Radio
“Mixing elements of alt-rock, indie R&B, and electro-pop, the song sounds somewhere in between AWOLNATION and Phantogram.”Surviving The Golden Age
Maggie Miles, the alternative artist based out of Nashville, TN shares her new EP, Swing Your Concerns along with a brand new single, “Hilary Duff” today.
“I believe that as humans we see the option of distracting ourselves from our current reality as a better route than to truly work on bettering who we are. Why feel and work through what's wrong when you can be numb instead. With the combination of expectations and eyeballs tracking your every move, that's what 'Hilary Duff' is about,” shares Maggie on “Hilary Duff.” Swing Your Concerns features Maggie’s latest three successful singles “Deserve This,” “Swim,” and “WHATDOISAY.” Maggie’s latest single, “Deserve This,” much like her recent “Swim,” comes at an important time. With everyone in quarantine, habits are broken, and a lot of people are experiencing emotional irregularity. These new songs dive into those emotions and find hope at the root of it all.
Maggie’s other recent song, and her first co-write in Nashville, “WHATDOISAY?,” a hard hitting pop-infused track, has been the favorite on a slew of playlists, everything from New Music Friday to, Indie Pop, Fresh Finds and more. She’s been featured on Variance, Billboard and American Songwriter. Evident of seemingly inherent talent, Maggie’s sound is all her own, standing apart from the rest in a time when bedroom pop is flooding the playlists and airwaves. With over 67K monthly listeners on Spotify, it’s clear that audiences are quickly taking note of her artistry. “Hilary Duff” and Swing Your Concerns follow the exciting announcement of her endorsement deal with the incredibly acclaimed, Yamaha Music. Maggie will be a part of the WAY Up program which is an emerging Artists program. Not only that, Yamaha flew Maggie out to Tokyo with UK Artists JNR Williams and Wyldest from London to speak at the panel at the Yamaha Ginza Hall in Tokyo. The emerging Artists shared experiences in song-writing and how music empowers them to express their emotions and convey a message, check more out on her experience here. Yamaha has released a preview to display what highly curated video content is to come for Maggie Miles.
Much like some of her peers, Maggie Rogers and Billie Eilish, she exudes authenticity which the modern generation is desperately craving. Originally from the Western Hills of Northern Virginia, she recently moved to Nashville to pursue music full time. Maggie grew up on the soulful vocals of vintage artists like Stevie Nicks and Ann Wilson, but has found 90s grunge to be a major source of inspiration as of late. She meshes all of her influences together with pounding, anthemic instrumentals to create a sound that’s all her own. In her music, she addresses the conflicts of life through sharp-hitting lyrics textured in alternative rhythms with pop sensibilities that paint a compelling picture of our imperfect existence. The contrast of her jangly sounds and perceptive lyrics are a result of her commitment to connectivity through the honest expression of the human condition. She shares, “I make music for the utter reason alone that I need to create something for myself that makes sense, when nothing else around me does.” For more information on Maggie, visit maggiemilesmusic.com.
CONNECT:Instagram: @_maggiemilesFacebook: @maggiemilesmusicTwitter: @maggerzmilesYouTubeSpotifyApple MusicSoundcloud
June 16, 2020
The Killers Release New Single “My Own Soul’s Warning”
New Single “My Own Soul’s Warning” Out Today via Island Records
(Credit: Olivia Bee) Following the success of their huge single, Caution, which reached #1 at the top of both the Alternative and Triple A radio charts, THE KILLERS are thrilled to share another new song -- entitled “My Own Soul’s Warning” -- taken from their forthcoming album, Imploding The Mirage.
LISTEN TO “MY OWN SOUL’S WARNING” HEREPRE-ORDER IMPLODING THE MIRAGE HERE
The artwork for “My Own Soul’s Warning” is a painting by the artist Thomas Blackshear, who also painted the piece the band is using for Imploding The Mirage’s cover art. As a companion to LP sleeve, the artwork for “My Own Soul’s Warning” is one from a series of Blackshear works depicting the Crow Tribe of Indians, who gave the band their blessing to use the painting, saying in a letter that “Artists living across the world inspired by our people and way of life, is a total honour and true testament of the knowledge our people share. During this unprecedented time due to the COVID-19 Pandemic as well as the injustice of police brutality protests around the world. Our people recognise the need to also help keep our spirits positive.”
The Killers also recently released replacement dates for their unavoidably postponed UK and Ireland 2020 stadium tour, with rescheduled dates for all original shows now taking place in May/June next year. The tour, the band’s biggest ever, sold out in hours when initial dates went on sale late last year, but fans have been assured that all tickets held for the original dates will be honored and are transferable to the corresponding 2021 show. New dates are:
Tuesday 25th May 2021 DONCASTER, KEEPMOAT STADIUM ** Thursday 27th May 2021 BRISTOL, ASHTON GATE STADIUM ## Saturday 29th May 2021 COVENTRY, RICOH STADIUM ## Monday 31st May 2021 SOUTHAMPTON, ST MARY’S STADIUM **Wednesday 2nd June 2021 NORWICH, CARROW ROAD STADIUM **Friday 4th June 2021 LONDON, EMIRATES STADIUM ^^Saturday 5th June 2021 LONDON, EMIRATES STADIUM ^^ Tuesday 8th June 2021 FALKIRK, THE FALKIRK STADIUM ** Thursday 10th June 2021 MIDDLESBROUGH, RIVERSIDE STADIUM ##Saturday 12th June 2021 MANCHESTER, EMIRATES OLD TRAFFORD **Tuesday 15th June 2021 DUBLIN, MALAHIDE CASTLE^^Wednesday 16th June 2021 DUBLIN, MALAHIDE CASTLE ^^
The Killers will be joined by Special Guests Blossoms (dates marked **), Sam Fender (dates marked ^^) and Manic Street Preachers (dates marked ##) at the shows. Remaining tickets for selected dates are available from gigsandtours.com and ticketmaster.co.uk.
Imploding The Mirage is The Killers’ sixth studio album and the follow up to 2017’s chart topping Wonderful Wonderful. Produced by the band in conjunction with Shawn Everett and Jonathan Rado of Foxygen, the album was recorded in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Park City, Utah. It is the first Killers album to be written and recorded since the band left their hometown of Las Vegas and it features a brilliant array of collaborators, another first for the group, who have typically kept guest spots on their albums to a minimum. The list of featured artists includes Lindsey Buckingham, kd lang, Weyes Blood, Adam Granduciel, Blake Mills, and Lucius. Since the release of their 2004 debut, Hot Fuss, The Killers have sold 28 million albums, headlined stadiums and festivals around the world and won dozens of accolades globally. The band continues their reign as America’s heartland heroes as they head into Imploding The Mirage. Following their 2017 Billboard #1 album, Wonderful Wonderful - a love letter of sorts, as Brandon Flowers crafted songs of encouragement to his wife during crippling bouts of depression - Imploding The Mirage is the light after the dark; the overcoming of sadness and moving into celebration. It’s a record about eternal love, perseverance through hard times, and the strength gained from friendships and familial bonds whilst weathering a storm.KEEP UP WITH THE KILLERS:WEBSITETWITTER / INSTAGRAM / FACEBOOK
ROGER WATERS 'US + THEM' TO BE AVAILABLE ON DVD, CD, BLU-RAY AND VINYL ON 10/2/2020
ROGER WATERS: US + THEMA FILM DIRECTED BY SEAN EVANS AND LEGENDARY PINK FLOYD FOUNDERROGER WATERSNow Available For Digital Purchase And Rental Blu-ray, DVD, CD & Vinyl to be released on October 2, 2020See film trailer here
See video of “Happiest Days of Our Lives/Another Brick in the Wall,Part 2 & Part 3” here
(New York, NY – June 16, 2020) Sony Music Entertainment is pleased to announce the release of ROGER WATERS: US + THEM on Blu-ray, DVD, CD and Vinyl. ROGER WATERS: US + THEM, chronicles the acclaimed 2017-2018 tour of the iconic Pink Floyd artist. ROGER WATERS: US + THEM concert film is available now to buy on Digital or watch on demand and will be released on Blu-ray, DVD, CD & Vinyl on Friday, October 2, 2020. Preorder the Blu-ray, DVD, CD and vinyl here
Founding member, lyricist, composer and creative force behind Pink Floyd, US + THEM presents Waters powerful music in stunning form and highlights its message of human rights, liberty and love. Based around his acclaimed, sold-out US + THEM worldwide tour of 2017-18, comprising a total of 156 shows to 2.3 million people across the globe, it features classic songs from The Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall, Animals, Wish You Were Here as well as his most recent album, Is This The Life We Really Want?
Directed by Sean Evans and Roger Waters, the film provides a visceral sense of what it was like to be there. With Evans using the most innovative digital and audio technology available, this state-of-the-art show encapsulates a series of breath-taking visual, audio and sensory experiences. It captures Waters’ legendary live performances taking the audience on an emotionally charged, thought provoking journey.
Waters powerfully demonstrates that he is at heart, a musical activist and one of the most passionate political commentators of his time. He has dedicated his life to fighting against those who seek to control our lives and destroy our planet. Welcome To The Machine and Another Brick In The Wall Part II, are a stark reminder of the bleak warnings that he gave decades ago about alienation, displacement, greed, suffering, destruction and loss. And yet the humanity of the songwriter cannot be more plainly seen than in Wish You Were Here, because, although he presents a grim picture of the state of the world, ultimately his message is one of hope through unity and love.
The US + THEM production in all formats captures the close relationship that Waters has with his fans both young and old and the unique connection he makes with his audience. If Animals is Orwellian, then The Wall is straight out of Bulgakov. With its call to action, US + THEM warns us of both.
ROGER WATERS: US + THEM concert film is currently available on 4K, HD and SD Digital from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and was filmed on tour in Amsterdam, and on location in the UK. Links to purchase and rent the film are here. Viewers on digital, Blu-Ray and DVD will have access to all-new post-feature content including two additional concert songs not included in the original feature (“Comfortably Numb” and “Smell the Roses”) as well as A Fleeting Glimpse, a documentary-style short film featuring behind-the-scenes moments from the tour.
ROGER WATERS: US + THEM CDs INCLUDE:CD 11.Intro2.Speak To Me3.Breathe4.One of These Days5.Time6.Breathe (Reprise)7.The Great Gig in the Sky8.Welcome to the Machine9.Déjà Vu10.The Last Refugee11.Picture That12.Wish You Were Here13.The Happiest Days of Our Lives14.Another Brick in the Wall Part 215.Another Brick in the Wall Part 3CD 2:1.Dogs 2.Pigs (Three Different Ones)3.Money4.Us & Them5.Brain Damage6.Eclipse7.The Last Refugee (Reprise)8.Déjà Vu (Reprise)
ROGER WATERS: US & THEM LPs INCLUDE:LP 1SIDE A1.Intro2.Speak To Me3.Breathe4.One of These Days5.Time6.Breathe (Reprise)7.The Great Gig in the SkySIDE B1.Welcome to the Machine2.Déjà Vu3.The Last Refugee
LP 2SIDE C1.Picture That2.Wish You Were Here3.The Happiest Days of Our Lives4.Another Brick in the Wall Part 25.Another Brick in the Wall Part 3SIDE D1.Dogs
LP 3SIDE E1.Pigs (Three Different Ones)2.Money
SIDE F1.Us & Them2.Brain Damage3.Eclipse4.The Last Refugee (Reprise) 5.Déjà Vu (Reprise)
ROGER WATERS: US + THEM BLU-RAY and DVD INCLUDES:1.Intro2.Speak To Me3.Breathe4.One of These Days5.Time6.Breathe (Reprise)7.The Great Gig in the Sky8.Welcome to the Machine9.Déjà Vu10.The Last Refugee11.Picture That12.Wish You Were Here13.The Happiest Days of Our Lives14.Another Brick in the Wall Part 215.Another Brick in the Wall Part 316.Dogs17.Pigs (Three Different Ones)18.Money19.Us & Them20.Brain Damage21.Eclipse22.The Last Refugee (Reprise)23.Déjà Vu (Reprise)BONUS FOOTAGE INCLUDES:“A FLEETING GLIMPSE” (Documentary)“COMFORTABLY NUMB” (Live Performance)“SMELL THE ROSES” (Live Performance)
BAND:Dave Kilminster: GuitarsBo Koster: KeyboardsJon Carin: Keyboards and GuitarsLucius – Jess Wolfe & Holly Laessig: VocalsIan Ritchie: SaxophoneGus Seyffert: Guitars and BassJonathan Wilson: Guitars and VocalsJoey Waronker: Drums
Alison Mosshart Announces Solo Spoken Word Album Sound Wheel Companion Piece To Art Book CAR MA For 8/7 Release
ALISON MOSSHARTAnnounces Solo Spoken Word Album Sound WheelCompanion Piece To Art Book CAR MA For August 7th Release on Third Man
Solo 7” “Rise” / “It Ain’t Water” out 7/31 on Domino
(Photo credit: David James Swanson)
Alison Mosshart (The Kills, The Dead Weather) has revealed details of Sound Wheel, her first solo spoken word album and companion piece to her printed collection of paintings, photographs, short stories and poetry, CAR MA. Both are set for release on August 7th on Third Man. CAR MA’s first limited edition print run sold out in one day upon release in May 2019. It will now be made widely available for the very first time via Third Man Books. The Special Edition bundle includes both hardcover, signed, limited edition CAR MA book and limited edition vinyl SOUND WHEEL LP, available direct from Third Man only.
Watch the video for Returning The Screw from Sound Wheel HERE
Sound Wheel is an album about cars, rock n’ roll, and love. It’s an album about America, performance, and life on the road. It’s an album about fender bender portraiture, story tellin' tire tracks, and the never-ending search for the spirit under the hood.
Mosshart imagines the auto body shop like some other Coney Island. And America’s highways - the last great roller coasters. She shows us that the engine on fire is connected to the guitar feeding back since birth. And the sensation of walking on stage and facing an audience is like the laugh before the scream in a car without brakes.
Mosshart ruminates that automobiles- with their doors and mirrors and windows, engines and wheels and radios- portray us. Mirror our need to be in or to exit, our inward reflections and outward visions, our lifetimes of tinkering with the mysterious heart. That which runs until it doesn’t.
Throughout history the car has been a symbol of freedom and hopeful adventure. It stands to reason it is also a symbol of our subsequent spinning out… over things we never thought could happen during a song that f’king good with the volume up that f’king loud.
“When I was writing Car Ma, there were some passages I struggled to get right, and I got in the practice of reading them out loud and recording them, to hear and feel where words or sentences were rubbing together wrong. I’d listen back to these recordings and they'd be real informative to me in that way. This tool I was using to help me, started feeling like this whole other angle or art form. And I started thinking it would be interesting to perform/record the whole book, not in a straight up spoken word way, but more like a sound sculpture of characters and voices and miscellaneous cut ups, no rules. After a full month of being obsessed with making the book, I then spent the next month obsessed with recording it. I told Third Man about this and they dug the idea. Due to the time constraints of vinyl, not every bit of writing is recorded, I took liberties with a razor blade on some stuff, and there are a lot of interludes from old tapes I found from old phone conversations I had in the 90’s, even a whole monologue where I played a crooked car dealer leaving a very long voicemail to a potential buyer- that does not appear in Car Ma, the book. I was just riffing and it really made me laugh. ’Sound Wheel’ is the sonic version of the book, but it’s its own animal really. It’s not music but there are songs on it, it’s not spoken word, but I talk a lot. Of course after all that writing and then all that recording, I thought, hmmm well it sure would be fun to make little films for all these sound pieces… and so I started doing that. Car Ma continues to be, for me, exploding out in all directions.” - Alison Mosshart
Pre-OrdersSound Wheel: https://thirdmanstore.com/sound-wheel-standard-black-vinylCar Ma (hardcover, signed) + Sound Wheel Special Edition Bundle: https://thirdmanstore.com/car-ma-special-editionCar Ma Standard Edition (paperback): https://thirdmanstore.com/car-ma-standard-editionThe Standard Edition of CAR MA will be available from bookstores everywhere August 11, 2020.
CAR MA / Sound Wheel Cover Art
The announcement of Sound Wheel and the new release of CAR MA follows Mosshart’s debut solo singles, “Rise” and “It Ain’t Water,” which will be featured on a forthcoming 7-inch release on Domino Records, available for pre-order now and set for physical release on July 31.The vinyl release pairs “Rise,” her debut solo track recorded for FacebookWatch show Sacred Lies, and “It Ain’t Water,” both with self-produced videos Mosshart created in quarantine.
Pre-order the "Rise" / "It Ain’t Water" 7” available July 31 via the Domino Mart HERE. The 7” will be housed in a spined sleeve with a four page insert.Praise for Alison Mosshart + “Rise”:
"It’s hard to believe that Alison Mosshart, of the Kills and the Dead Weather, hasn’t made a solo single until now. ‘Rise’ stays close to the bluesy foreboding of her other bands. A thumping drum and a bare-bones guitar shuffle surge into visions of dire times and a promise to outlast them." - The New York Times
"...a bluesy slow-burner packed with the singer's signature yowl..." - Entertainment Weekly
"The guitar-driven track slow burns, growing into a blast at the chorus. Despite the dark tone, there’s an uplifting feel to the lyrics...sounds just like the type of words many of us need to hear right now."- SPIN
Fierce and fiery, a no-nonsense firestarter, Alison Mosshart is hardly a stranger to taking chances. Best known as one-half of acclaimed duo The Kills, when she’s not moonlighting as Baby Ruthless, the gnarly lead singer of blues-punk foursome The Dead Weather, Mosshart is a forever moving force. Over the years she’s collaborated with everyone from her Dead Weather bandmate Jack White to the Arctic Monkeys, Primal Scream, Gang Of Four, Cage The Elephant, Foo Fighters, James Williamson and Mini Mansions. But her new and boldest move yet finds her embracing her solo bonafides.
For a multi-disciplinary artist like Mosshart — whose paintings have been shown in galleries across the world, and who recently published her first book, CAR MA, a collection of her art, photography and writing that doubles as a love letter to automobiles — working on a variety of projects, now including her own music, is exactly how she likes it. Currently, she is working with Jamie Hince on the next Kills record and dreams of the day in the hopefully not so distant future, (pandemic-willing) when they’ll be back on the road with exciting new music to share.
CAR MA Cover
Solo 7” “Rise” / “It Ain’t Water” out 7/31 on Domino
(Photo credit: David James Swanson)Alison Mosshart (The Kills, The Dead Weather) has revealed details of Sound Wheel, her first solo spoken word album and companion piece to her printed collection of paintings, photographs, short stories and poetry, CAR MA. Both are set for release on August 7th on Third Man. CAR MA’s first limited edition print run sold out in one day upon release in May 2019. It will now be made widely available for the very first time via Third Man Books. The Special Edition bundle includes both hardcover, signed, limited edition CAR MA book and limited edition vinyl SOUND WHEEL LP, available direct from Third Man only.
Watch the video for Returning The Screw from Sound Wheel HERE
Sound Wheel is an album about cars, rock n’ roll, and love. It’s an album about America, performance, and life on the road. It’s an album about fender bender portraiture, story tellin' tire tracks, and the never-ending search for the spirit under the hood.
Mosshart imagines the auto body shop like some other Coney Island. And America’s highways - the last great roller coasters. She shows us that the engine on fire is connected to the guitar feeding back since birth. And the sensation of walking on stage and facing an audience is like the laugh before the scream in a car without brakes.
Mosshart ruminates that automobiles- with their doors and mirrors and windows, engines and wheels and radios- portray us. Mirror our need to be in or to exit, our inward reflections and outward visions, our lifetimes of tinkering with the mysterious heart. That which runs until it doesn’t.
Throughout history the car has been a symbol of freedom and hopeful adventure. It stands to reason it is also a symbol of our subsequent spinning out… over things we never thought could happen during a song that f’king good with the volume up that f’king loud.
“When I was writing Car Ma, there were some passages I struggled to get right, and I got in the practice of reading them out loud and recording them, to hear and feel where words or sentences were rubbing together wrong. I’d listen back to these recordings and they'd be real informative to me in that way. This tool I was using to help me, started feeling like this whole other angle or art form. And I started thinking it would be interesting to perform/record the whole book, not in a straight up spoken word way, but more like a sound sculpture of characters and voices and miscellaneous cut ups, no rules. After a full month of being obsessed with making the book, I then spent the next month obsessed with recording it. I told Third Man about this and they dug the idea. Due to the time constraints of vinyl, not every bit of writing is recorded, I took liberties with a razor blade on some stuff, and there are a lot of interludes from old tapes I found from old phone conversations I had in the 90’s, even a whole monologue where I played a crooked car dealer leaving a very long voicemail to a potential buyer- that does not appear in Car Ma, the book. I was just riffing and it really made me laugh. ’Sound Wheel’ is the sonic version of the book, but it’s its own animal really. It’s not music but there are songs on it, it’s not spoken word, but I talk a lot. Of course after all that writing and then all that recording, I thought, hmmm well it sure would be fun to make little films for all these sound pieces… and so I started doing that. Car Ma continues to be, for me, exploding out in all directions.” - Alison Mosshart
Pre-OrdersSound Wheel: https://thirdmanstore.com/sound-wheel-standard-black-vinylCar Ma (hardcover, signed) + Sound Wheel Special Edition Bundle: https://thirdmanstore.com/car-ma-special-editionCar Ma Standard Edition (paperback): https://thirdmanstore.com/car-ma-standard-editionThe Standard Edition of CAR MA will be available from bookstores everywhere August 11, 2020.
CAR MA / Sound Wheel Cover Art The announcement of Sound Wheel and the new release of CAR MA follows Mosshart’s debut solo singles, “Rise” and “It Ain’t Water,” which will be featured on a forthcoming 7-inch release on Domino Records, available for pre-order now and set for physical release on July 31.The vinyl release pairs “Rise,” her debut solo track recorded for FacebookWatch show Sacred Lies, and “It Ain’t Water,” both with self-produced videos Mosshart created in quarantine.
Pre-order the "Rise" / "It Ain’t Water" 7” available July 31 via the Domino Mart HERE. The 7” will be housed in a spined sleeve with a four page insert.Praise for Alison Mosshart + “Rise”:"It’s hard to believe that Alison Mosshart, of the Kills and the Dead Weather, hasn’t made a solo single until now. ‘Rise’ stays close to the bluesy foreboding of her other bands. A thumping drum and a bare-bones guitar shuffle surge into visions of dire times and a promise to outlast them." - The New York Times
"...a bluesy slow-burner packed with the singer's signature yowl..." - Entertainment Weekly
"The guitar-driven track slow burns, growing into a blast at the chorus. Despite the dark tone, there’s an uplifting feel to the lyrics...sounds just like the type of words many of us need to hear right now."- SPIN
Fierce and fiery, a no-nonsense firestarter, Alison Mosshart is hardly a stranger to taking chances. Best known as one-half of acclaimed duo The Kills, when she’s not moonlighting as Baby Ruthless, the gnarly lead singer of blues-punk foursome The Dead Weather, Mosshart is a forever moving force. Over the years she’s collaborated with everyone from her Dead Weather bandmate Jack White to the Arctic Monkeys, Primal Scream, Gang Of Four, Cage The Elephant, Foo Fighters, James Williamson and Mini Mansions. But her new and boldest move yet finds her embracing her solo bonafides.
For a multi-disciplinary artist like Mosshart — whose paintings have been shown in galleries across the world, and who recently published her first book, CAR MA, a collection of her art, photography and writing that doubles as a love letter to automobiles — working on a variety of projects, now including her own music, is exactly how she likes it. Currently, she is working with Jamie Hince on the next Kills record and dreams of the day in the hopefully not so distant future, (pandemic-willing) when they’ll be back on the road with exciting new music to share.
CAR MA Cover
