Alexander Laurence's Blog, page 172
January 15, 2025
My Morning Jacket Announce New Album; Share First Single & Video
MY MORNING JACKET UNVEIL is
GROUNDBREAKING ROCK BAND RETURN WITH
BRENDAN O’BRIEN-PRODUCED NEW ALBUM
LEAD SINGLE, “TIME WAITED,” PREMIERES TODAY – LISTEN
OFFICIAL “TIME WAITED” MUSIC VIDEO DIRECTED BY DANNY CLINCH
PREMIERES TODAY – WATCH
MY MORNING JACKET’S ONE BIG HOLIDAY ‘25
SET FOR APRIL 3-5 IN MIRAMAR BEACH, FL
is ARRIVES VIA ATO RECORDS ON FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 2025
PRE-ORDERS AVAILABLE NOW
My Morning Jacket is beginning the new year with the announcement of their eagerly awaited new album, is, arriving via ATO Records on Friday, March 21. Pre-orders are available now.
Produced by 3x GRAMMY® Award-winner Brendan O’Brien (Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam), is – which marks My Morning Jacket’s 10th studio album and first full-length new collection in more than three years – is heralded by today’s premiere of the ravishing lead single, “Time Waited,” available everywhere now. An official music video directed by Danny Clinch, featuring new performance footage interspersed with archival photos from throughout the band’s history, is streaming now on YouTube. A love song for the ages, imbued with equal parts wide-eyed romanticism and wistful recognition of love’s intrinsic fragility, “Time Waited” emerged from a sample of a spellbinding piano part lifted from pedal-steel virtuoso Buddy Emmons’ lost classic album, Emmons Guitar Inc.
“I made a loop of that piano intro and listened as I went for a walk, and all these melodies started coming to me,” says My Morning Jacket vocalist/guitarist Jim James. “For a long time, I didn’t have lyrics, but then I had a dream where I was in a café and a song was playing, and the lyrics to that song became the lyrics to ‘Time Waited’ – the melodies just fit perfectly. And the lyrics are about how flexible time is, how we can bend and warp time, especially if we are following our hearts, the universe and time itself can flow to work with us.”
LISTEN TO “TIME WAITED”
WATCH “TIME WAITED” OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO
PRE-ORDER is
Photo Credit: Silvia Grav
For more than 25 years, My Morning Jacket have achieved an incredibly rare feat in the world of rock ‘n’ roll – upholding a long-established cultural legacy while sustaining all the curiosity and creative hunger of their very earliest days. In a monumental step for the Louisville, KY-bred five-piece – vocalist/guitarist Jim James, bassist Tom Blankenship, guitarist Carl Broemel, drummer Patrick Hallahan, keyboardist Bo Koster – is once again expands the limits of their sound and elevates their artistry to unprecedented heights. The result is perhaps the most masterfully realized work yet from a band fully committed to their belief in music as a conduit for revelation of all kinds.
Largely recorded at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles, is finds My Morning Jacket deviating from their typically self-produced approach by teaming up with multiple GRAMMY® Award-winner Brendan O’Brien, one of the most esteemed producers in rock music, known for his extensive work with Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam. For James – who has produced or co-produced all of the band’s studio albums since their 1999 debut The Tennessee Fire – the decision to work with O’Brien stemmed from a newfound willingness to open up their process and involve an outside creative force in shaping My Morning Jacket’s restlessly inventive yet nuanced form of psych-rock.
“Up until now I’ve never been able to let go and allow someone else to steer the ship,” James says. “It almost felt like an out-of-body experience to step back and give control over to someone who’s far more accomplished and made so many more records than us, but in the end I was able to enjoy the process maybe more than I ever have before.”
Prior to joining O’Brien in the studio, My Morning Jacket got together for two highly exploratory writing and recording sessions, amassing over a hundred demos before settling upon the 10 eclectic tracks that eventually comprise the finished album. New songs such as the sprawling, album-opening epic, “Out In The Open” and the delightfully warped “Squid Ink” reveal a band whose voracious creative appetite is wholly matched by a deft command of their visionary musicality. When it came time to name the collection, My Morning Jacket chose a title that speaks to the infinitely unpredictable nature of music-making.
“I like how the word is indicates a sense of presence in the now – there’s no logic or rationale behind this record; it just is,” says James. “All these songs came into existence out of an attempt to connect with something beyond the human experiment, which for me is one of the most beautiful things about music – that connection with something larger than us, yet something we are all equally a part of.”
is – which arrives as My Morning Jacket celebrates the 20th anniversary of their 2005’s landmark Z, a lavishly acclaimed collection named by Rolling Stone among “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time” – represents another milestone in the band’s ever-evolving body of work, as well as an opportunity to breathe new energy into their historically stunning and hard-driving live performances. James points to the “undeniable force of loving” as the most essential factor in the band’s longevity and unending enchantment with the process of musical creation.
“One of the cool things about being around this long is that we’re not afraid to scrap something if we don’t absolutely love it,” he says.
“It feels really great to have a collection of songs we all love this much, and to know that we worked as hard as we possibly could on them. Hopefully those songs will be helpful to people and give them some kind of peace as they try to deal with the insanity of the world – because that’s what music does for me, and doing the same for others is always my greatest dream come true.”
Photo Credit: Silvia Grav
Widely regarded among the greatest live acts in music today, My Morning Jacket will celebrate is with an extensive tour schedule to be announced soon. Meanwhile, the band is currently readying the next edition of My Morning Jacket’s One Big Holiday, a three-night music vacation set for April 3-5 at Miramar Beach, FL’s Seascape Resort. In addition to three unique headline shows from My Morning Jacket, the event will see performances from an all-star lineup that includes Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Devon Gilfillian, Dinosaur Jr., Karina Rykman, S.G. Goodman, and Futurebirds, plus Late Night Campfire Sets by Tyler Ramsey, Maggie Halfman, and Bendigo Fletcher, as well as Late Night Silent Jam Performances by Karina Rykman, Eggy, and Illiterate Light. Tickets are on sale now exclusively at topeka.live/onebigholiday25. For tour announcements and additional updates, please see www.mymorningjacket.com/events.
# # #
MY MORNING JACKET
is
(ATO Records)
Release Date: Friday, March 21, 2025
Tracklist:
Out In The Open
Half A Lifetime
Everyday Magic
I Can Hear Your Love
Time Waited
Beginning From The Ending
Lemme Know
Squid Ink
Die For It
River Road
CONNECT WITH MY MORNING JACKET
MYMORNINGJACKET.COM | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | TWITTER | YOUTUBE
Sunny War Releases "Cry Baby" Ft. Valerie June Today - "Armageddon In A Summer Dress" Out February 21
SUNNY WAR RETURNS WITH ARMAGEDDON IN A SUMMER DRESS FEBRUARY 21, 2025 VIA NEW WEST RECORDS
FEATURING VALERIE JUNE, JOHN DOE OF X, STEVE IGNORANT OF CRASS, TRÉ BURT, JACK LAWRENCE OF THE RACONTEURS, JOHN JAMES TOURVILLE OF THE DESLONDES, AND MORE
PASTE MAGAZINE PREMIERES “CRY BABY” FEATURING VALERIE JUNE TODAY
TO APPEAR AT BIG EARS FESTIVAL MARCH 27-30, 2025
Sunny War Photograph by Joshua Black Wilkins
Sunny War returns with Armageddon in a Summer Dress on February 21, 2025, via New West Records. The 11-song set was produced by Andrija Tokic (Alabama Shakes, Hurray for the Riff Raff) and features guest appearances by Valerie June, John Doe of X, Steve Ignorant of Crass, Tré Burt, Jack Lawrence of the Raconteurs, Kyshona Armstrong, John James Tourville of the Deslondes, and more. Armageddon in a Summer Dress follows 2023’s Anarchist Gospel, which appeared on numerous “Best of the Year” lists including Rolling Stone, NPR Music, Uncut, Paste Magazine, No Depression, Flood Magazine, Magnet Magazine, The Bitter Southerner, and more. NPR Music called Anarchist Gospel “thrilling,” Mojo called it “exceptional” and a “significant breakthrough,” while Bandcamp called it a “stellar work of art.” Pitchfork called it “emotionally resonant and curiously hopeful,” while Rolling Stone said, “It all amounts to a powerful statement from a singer-songwriter poised to become one of the year’s most vital voices in roots music.” Anarchist Gospel’s success also took Sunny War on the road appearing alongside Mitski, Iron & Wine, John Doe & Exene Cervenka of X, Bonnie Raitt, and more.
Today, Paste Magazine premiered the new single “Cry Baby” which features Valerie June. She says, “I’ve opened for Valerie June quite a bit and years ago I asked her if I could try and write a song for her. Somewhere in Portland, OR, I wrote ‘Cry Baby’ with Valerie in mind. I always listen to her when I want to be calmed down or hugged. I’m stoked that she was down to sing on this song inspired by her.” Share “Cry Baby” featuring Sunny War HERE.
Sunny War previously shared the video for the album’s first single, “Walking Contradiction,” a duet with the legendary Steve Ignorant of Crass. Recruiting Steve to sing on the anarcho-punk anthem was a full-circle moment for Sunny, who counts Crass among her all-time favorite bands. She wrote the song especially for him: with its snaking blues melody, ominous organ chords, and her guitar tagging the walls of city hall, the song is a smart, scowling depiction of late-capitalist America, where even the best of us are compromised by a fundamentally evil system. Their voices suggest a wild chemistry between them, possibly because Sunny’s been singing along with Steve for decades. She says, “He’s my hero for life. When I started listening to Crass, it changed everything about how I thought about everything.” Steve Ignorant says, "It's always an honour to collaborate with someone you respect and Sunny War is no exception. She is the younger voice, taking up the torch of hope in this dark world. The minute I heard the song I knew it would work and recording it was an incredibly emotional experience. The lyrics are now in my head for good - which is not a bad thing, and who knows - maybe one day we'll get the chance to perform it together live." She also previously shared the album highlight “Scornful Heart,” featuring Tré Burt.
Following the release of her breakthrough Anarchist Gospel, Sunny moved into her late father’s house in Chattanooga. She thought the place was haunted. “I spent the winter seeing things and hearing things,” she says. “The house is 100 years old, and I was in there by myself. I could hear people walking around and talking, but when I jumped out of bed with my machete, there was nobody there. I assumed it was my dad, and I started writing about the ghosts that I was living with.” Sunny’s house wasn’t haunted, at least not the way she initially suspected. “Something broke and I had to fix it, so I called the gas company even though I didn’t have the money. The guy discovered major gas leaks all over the house. I thought I was losing my mind, but I was just hallucinating from the gas. After I got that fixed, I never saw or heard another ghost.” That’s not to say they weren’t there, just that she could no longer detect them. Armageddon is rooted in the disorientation of those hallucinations. In songs that are deeply incisive and keenly imaginative, Sunny ponders the act of crossing boundaries—between worlds, between musical genres, summoning the ghosts of the people she lost, the people she once was, and the people she was not allowed to be.
Off the road and back at her not-haunted house, Sunny did her best to stay busy, lest she lapse back into the alcohol and drug abuse that almost killed her years ago. “If I’m not touring, I’m either going to play music all day or I’m going to get drunk. It’s really one or the other. I’m just obsessively trying to work on something so that I’m making healthier decisions that day.” She spent long days recording elaborate demos, chasing ideas and assembling whole songs from the ground up. The intense demo process allowed her to experiment with new textures, and she found herself gravitating away from her trusty acoustic guitar for an electric. “Touring behind Anarchist Gospel made me want to make a bigger-sounding record and have a whole band rather than just playing solo acoustic or with a three piece. I wanted to try stuff out of my comfort zone and try and have more fun playing. I definitely wanted to make this album for a badass five-piece band.”Armageddon in a Summer Dress reveals an artist further refining her vibrant mix of punk and roots. “To me it’s the same kind of music. If you’re into punk for the lyrics and the message, there’s definitely a lot of old-time music that has that spirit. Folk used to be very anti-establishment. Pete Seeger, union songs, Woody Guthrie—that’s punk rock shit. It’s all about being an outsider.” What kind of person would Sunny be had she never heard Crass? Or Robert Johnson? Or any of her heroes? Those mirror-universe Sunnys are just some of the ghosts that haunts Armageddon in a Summer Dress: all of those different selves would have led different lives. These songs tally up everything that’s lost as you grow up and grow old, all of those small occurrences that turn out to be pivotal. As dire as some of these songs may be, they’re also righteous and therefore joyous in their exhortations to live on your own terms, to fight injustice wherever you see it, and to always reach for new ways to express yourself.”
Sunny War’s Armageddon in a Summer Dress will be available across digital platforms, compact disc, and standard black vinyl. A limited Clear Pink color vinyl edition as well as a limited compact disc edition autographed by Sunny War will be available at Independent Retailers. A limited Green & Black Swirl color vinyl edition of 200 will be available via Rough Trade. A limited signed compact disc edition as well as a limited “Cry Baby Blue” color vinyl edition of 500 will be available directly via NEW WEST RECORDS.
Armageddon in a Summer Dress Track Listing:
1. One Way Train
2. Bad Times
3. Rise
4. Ghosts
5. Walking Contradiction (feat. Steve Ignorant)
6. Cry Baby (feat. Valerie June)
7. No One Calls Me Baby
8. Scornful Heart (feat. Tré Burt)
9. Gone Again (feat. John Doe)
10. Lay Your Body
11. Debbie Downer
Sunny War On Tour:
February 21, 2025 – Nashville, TN – Third Man Records *Record Release Show
March 27-30, 2025 – Knoxville, TN – Big Ears Festival
LAKE announces new LP, 'Bucolic Gone' on Don Giovanni and shares first single / video, "Wonderful Sunlight"
WATCH & STREAM: "Wonderful Sunlight" -
YouTube / Streaming Services
Today LAKE, a band rooted in both the lush landscapes of the Puget Sound and the sprawl of Los Angeles, has announced a new LP, Bucolic Gone, out March 7 - you can pre-order it HERE. It will be the band's first release for Don Giovanni Records. LAKE has also shared the first single and video from the album, "Wonderful Sunlight," which you can watch HERE.
"Wonderful Sunlight" is an uplifting reflection that is looking to the past for answers to life’s fleeting miseries. With hypnotic, distorted pulsing rhythms reminiscent of Joy Division, “Wonderful Sunlight” juxtaposes heavy, distorted synths with moments of clarity and beauty. Soothing vocals rise above dense sonic layers, creating an atmosphere that is at once unsettling and transcendent—a golden rodeo of sound pulling listeners back toward the light.
About the video:
Shot entirely on Super-8, the video is unique in that it is a time capsule of the band and their relationship with filmmaker and songwriter Clyde Petersen, who shot and directed the video. Combining color footage of the band Clyde filmed on a tour in 2007 with new black & white film stock from 2023, there is a 1939 Wizard of Oz parallel, but also, the lyrics, “Go Back To The Wonderful Sunlight” represent the accessibility of our own colorful memories which we can fall back on for guidance. The majority of the unexposed film used was leftover stock from Clyde’s epic experimental documentary Even Hell Has Its Heroes, a 2023 film about the metal band Earth.
***
After a five-year absence following 2020’s creative elevator-punk explosion Roundelay, Ashley Eriksson, Eli Moore, and Andrew Dorsett of LAKE return with Bucolic Gone, a mature and polished album that is at once groovy, upbeat, meditative, and slow-rolled. As LAKE’s 10th official full-length release, Bucolic Gone is a cohesive work of sophisti-pop that embodies an adult, contemporary sound—intimate, serene, mournful, and hopeful in equal measure.
The multi-instrumental trio is joined by an impressive lineup of collaborators, including guest vocalists Nicholas Krgovich on “Glad Rags” and Daisy Jaberi of Suver with original lyrics on “Love Is Deeper.” Frequent contributors also make appearances: Karl Blau delivers standout shredding on “Ferrari,” Mark Buzard of The Format provides guitar textures across multiple tracks, and New York jazz musician Eric Vanderbuilt-Matthews contributes intricate woodwind arrangements. Steve Moore (Earth, Sunn O))), First Aid Kit, Sufjan Stevens) adds trombone to “Love Is Deeper,” while legendary Canadian singer Jenn Grant lends her unique vocals to the outro of “Ferrari.”
From the sorrowful depths of “Blue Horizon” and “My Dear Brother”—written the day Eriksson lost her brother to COVID-19—to the clarity of self-soothing and healing in “Airplane” and “Love Is Deeper Now,” the emotional arc of Bucolic Gone moves from darkness to light. A heartfelt ABBA singalong pays tribute to Eriksson’s family and brother, while Moore reflects on his life as an artist in “Wonderful Sunlight,” mining uplifting memories for clues to life’s complexities. The album concludes with a breezy, surfy reprise of their cult hit “No Wonder I,” famously BMO’s favorite song in the popular international animated series, Adventure Time.
Recorded at The Anacortes Unknown Recording Studio by longtime collaborator Nicholas Wilbur and in the band’s own home studios, Bucolic Gone marks another step forward for Eli Moore in production and mixing. His meticulous attention to arrangement and balance—alongside an arsenal of distorted “whatchamacallits”—creates a rich, layered sound.
Celebrating 20 years of ethereal, yearning pop songs, LAKE’s latest effort is their most produced but also most intimate album. Now signed to Don Giovanni Records, the band is ready to continue delivering jams. While the world has changed since LAKE’s last official release, Bucolic Gone shows that time has been on their side.
TOUR DATES:
March 8 - Los Angeles, CA - 2220 Arts (Record Release Show)
March 10 - 15 - Austin, TX - SXSW
LAKE
Bucolic Gone
(Don Giovanni)
Street Date: March 7, 2025
Pre-order it here
Track Listing:
Side One
Bucolic Gone
Ferrari
Airplane
Glad Rags
Love is Deeper Now
Side Two
Blue Horizon
My Dear Brother
The Way Old Friends Do
Wonderful Sunlight
No Wonder I
LAKE LINKS:
Bandcamp
Instagram
Twitter
Don Giovanni Records
Ora the Molecule Shares New Track "Intergalactic Dance" || New Album 'Dance Therapy' Out 3/21 On Mute
ORA THE MOLECULE SHARES NEW TRACK “INTERGALACTIC DANCE”
NEW ALBUM DANCE THERAPY
OUT 3/21 ON MUTE
photo credit: Jonathan Kvien
Today Ora the Molecule has shared brand new track “Intergalactic Dance” and its accompanying video, which premiered this morning via FLOOD. The Italo disco-inflected offering is taken from her forthcoming sophomore album, Dance Therapy, that will be released on March 21, 2025, and follows first track “Løveskatt”.
Watch the video for “Intergalactic Dance” HERE.Nora Schjelderup, the creative mind behind the Ora The Molecule moniker, comments of the track: "Intergalactic dance was written from a feeling of urgency. It’s the calling to be unapologetically you while on this planet. It’s a wake up call and a command for love, in a robotic fashion. So, do the dance, the intergalactic dance, the dance of you. The song was also inspired by the novel of Antoine de Saint-Exupèry called The Little Prince that follows a little intergalactic boy who travels from planet to planet and discovers essential truths about connection, life, love and freedom of self and what is unseen, but eternal."
Dance Therapy is Schjelderup as a lone mastermind, conceiving a new world all her own. On this album, she wrote, recorded, and produced everything, save a handful of co-production contributions from Mathias Risdal.
The driving force behind Dance Therapy stems from Schjelderup’s experience as a DJ, a career that has steadily ascended since the pandemic. She imagined herself being behind the decks, while simultaneously seeing herself in the audience, and asking: “What would I play for that Nora in the crowd to make her day just a little bit better?” Fueled by classic late ‘70s club sounds and Italo-disco, this became the retro-futuristic fever dream of Dance Therapy.
As in the past, she decamped to her studio, located in a cabin in the woods outside of Oslo. There, she processed a series of severe losses, the therapy of the album’s title becoming literal.
Dance Therapy became deeply conceptual, with Schjelderup working off a prompt: If we encountered intelligent life in outer space, how would she present herself? “Would I be this mundane shit — I’m constantly heartbroken, I don’t know what I want to do when I grow up,” she says. “Or will I try to rise and be the highest version of myself possible? To be as glamorous and fabulous as I could?”Schjelderup’s intergalactic vision drew upon a broad array of references. While exploring a “study” of electronic pioneer Mort Garson’s Mother Earth’s Plantasia, she began favoring digital reproductions of various modular synths and theremin. Italo disco star Raffaella Carrà inspired Ora The Molecule becoming a more full-blown character separated from but symbiotic with Schjelderup herself, while the music of Annie Lennox helped shape Dance Therapy’s narrative heft.
The resulting body of work is rife with ebullient, infectious dance music, but also remarkably complex meditations on grief, mortality and heartbreak - all transmuted through the lens of Ora’s cosmic inner journey to discover her own sense of self, human or otherwise.
And, at the end, Schjelderup has finally created a new transcendence: both Nora and Ora but neither, a deeper sense of herself and the disco superhero she has willed into being, a new identity from everything that came before.
Dance Therapy is out March 21, 2025 on limited edition hand-numbered white vinyl, black vinyl, cassette and digitally. Pre-order it HERE.
Dance Therapy track listing:
1. Becoming A Human
2. Intergalactic Dance
3. Løveskatt
4. Prince Of The Rhythm
5. Is This Love?
6. Nobody Cares
7. If I Believed
8. Cyber Fever
9. Evig Ung
10. New Years
11. Let Me Dance
12. Becoming Ora
Pre-order Dance Therapy HERE.
CONNECT WITH ORA THE MOLECULE:
FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | BANDCAMP | TIK TOK
CONNECT WITH MUTE:
FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | TIK TOK | WEB
January 14, 2025
LA GIVES BACK: FIRE RELIEF presented by IHEARTCOMIX, BROWNIES & LEMONADE, ANOTHER PLANET ENTERTAINMENT, and TERAGRAM on 1.29 @ THE BELLWETHER IN LA
IHEARTCOMIX, BROWNIES & LEMONADE, ANOTHER PLANET ENTERTAINMENT AND TERAGRAM PRESENT:
LA GIVES BACK: FIRE RELIEF
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29TH @ THE BELLWETHER IN LOS ANGELES
BENEFIT SERIES FOR THE LA COMMUNITY RETURNS FOR ITS 7th TIME
MORE ANNOUNCEMENTS IN THE COMING DAYS
On Wednesday, January 29th, IHEARTCOMIX, BROWNIES & LEMONADE, ANOTHER PLANET ENTERTAINMENT & TERAGRAM will present the 7th edition of LA GIVES BACK fundraiser at The Bellwether. This time, LA GIVES BACK: FIRE RELIEF will rally the Los Angeles community to raise funds for charities which support victims of the fire, first responders, and animals who need help due to the devastating and fatal Los Angeles wildfires. 100% of the funds raised will go to charity.
The lineup will be announced at a later date, and as usual, the night will be staked by some of LA’s best promoters curating multiple stages inside the venue.
Previous LA GIVES BACK lineups have included ZEDD, Bonobo, Madeon, Flying Lotus, TOKiMONSTA, Boys Noize, A-Trak, SNL’s Sarah Sherman, JPEGMafia, Louis The Child, Tim Heidecker & Weyes Blood, Eric André, etc, and the event series has collectively raised over $250,000 for LA-based charities and initiatives.
“There's nothing the IHEARTCOMIX team and I care about more than our Los Angeles community—it’s what made us who we are. Over the past few days, it has been extremely painful to witness so many close friends, family members, and colleagues lose their homes. Even more heartbreaking, is knowing the road to recovery will be long. In moments like these, we believe it's our duty to channel our best talents to support those in need. LA Gives Back has always been that vehicle for us, so we hope this event will make a meaningful contribution in providing some relief to our community.” - Franki Chan, IHEARTCOMIX
“The devastation Los Angeles has endured the past week from these wildfires made it clear we had to do something. LA Gives Back has been our longstanding event series focused on providing aid to our city and we’re so happy to bring it back for this crucial moment to provide wildfire relief for our city.” - Brownies & Lemonade
“Los Angeles is home to a vibrant independent creative community - we’re proud to open our stage in support of our neighbors who lost everything in this disaster.” - Casey Lowdermilk, The Bellwether
Miki Berenyi Trio Announce Debut LP 'Tripla' due out April 4 via Bella Union | Unveil "8th Deadly Sin" Single/Video
Miki Berenyi Trio
Announce Debut Album Tripla due out April 4 via Bella Union
Share " 8th Deadly Sin " Single + Video
Available across platforms here
Credit: Abbey Raymonde
Miki Berenyi Trio today announce the release of their debut album Tripla due out April 4 via Bella Union and available to preorder here. A new chapter, a new-line-up, a newly minted sound; it is a landmark record for its three creators: Miki Berenyi, KJ ‘Moose’ McKillop and Oliver Cherer. The album’s richly layered, imaginative and uniquely slanted strain of dream pop is an often euphoric and sometimes melancholic mix of guitars and electronica, fronted by Miki’s instantly recognisable vocal, overlaid with an often profound and sometimes abrasive or yearning view of the world.
To accompany the announcement, the band have shared a video by Sébastien Faits-Divers combining live footage filmed in Dijon, France with artwork by Chris Bigg for their rousing first single “8th Deadly Sin”.
Watch / Share: “8th Deadly Sin” video
Miki Berenyi Trio, or MB3 for short, is named after its lead singer – a direct way to convey the presence of the former singer/co-guitarist of Lush, and one of the most instantly recognisable faces of the ‘90s - but the songwriting is entirely a three-way collaboration, as the album title describes: acknowledging the mother tongue of Miki’s father, Tripla is Hungarian for ‘triple’. The trio’s dynamic beauty is illustrated by the album’s lead single and opening track “8th Deadly Sin”, subtly influenced by dance music but equally driven by a shoegaze-y dynamic, a combination accomplished with finesse and a barrage of gorgeous hooks. The track is coupled with Moose’s eco-protesting lyric, or as he puts it, “the absolute disrespect for Mother Earth.” “D’you understand the mess we’re in?” Miki sings. “So what’s the plan, Action Man? / Silly boys / broken toys.”
Commenting on “8th Deadly Sin” Miki Berenyi says: “Simon Raymonde instantly picked this out as a single and it immediately went down a storm when we played it live. I can’t pretend that I am in a position to lecture others over their green credentials but there’s a broader philosophy in the song that I can relate to – humanity hurtling toward its own destruction, which (to me) applies as much to wars and social intolerance as it does environmental issues.”
Tripla is completed by a superb mix by Paul Gregory (of Bella Union labelmates Lanterns On The Lake) and beautiful artwork by Chris Bigg – who designed the sleeves for Piroshka and contributed to all of Lush’s sleeves – incorporating photography from Martin Andersen. But for all the album’s heightened and sophisticated sound, MB3 have gone back to basics, not only recording at home but driving a car packed with their gear, loading in and out of venues themselves. “There is something very ‘grass roots’ about what we’re doing,” says Miki. “There’s no point following the ‘announce the album, then tour, then record the next album’ route – we just want to wring as much enjoyment out of this as we can, and hope that it resonates somewhere!”
Miki Berenyi Trio have announced a number of upcoming live dates including UK shows as part of Independent Venue Week followed by Rough Trade instore performances in April and a European tour in April and May. All dates are listed here.
Tripla tracklist:
1. 8th Deadly Sin
2. Kinch
3. Vertigo
4. Gango
5. A Different Girl
6. Big I Am
7. Hurricane
8. Manu
9. Ubique
MOLLIE ELIZABETH RELEASES VIRAL DEBUT SINGLE “VEGAS VENETIAN" ON NEON GOLD RECORDS
MOLLIE ELIZABETH RELEASES
VIRAL DEBUT SINGLE “VEGAS VENETIAN" HERE
PACIFIC NORTHWEST SINGER-SONGWRITER ARRIVES WITH A STUNNING FIRST OFFERING ON NEON GOLD RECORDS
Photo credit: Rachel Demy
Today, 21 year old Washington State-based singer-songwriter Mollie Elizabeth releases her long-awaited debut single, the cinematic fever dream “Vegas Venetian” + official lyric video. After initially finding runaway virality with her self-produced bedroom demo of the track last fall, Mollie teamed up with producer Dean Reid (Lana Del Rey, Marina, Alessia Cara, et. al) to bring the fully realized studio version into the world on vaunted indie label Neon Gold Records (Charli XCX, Marina, Tove Lo, etc). An escapist fantasy dripping in glitter and gold, Mollie built a world worth losing yourself in, a timeless debut fluttering to earth somewhere between Lana Del Rey and Laufey.
She introduces herself: Hi there, my name is Mollie (aka doeyedfairie), and I am a singer and songwriter from the woods of Washington State’s Cascades. To me, every melody is a tiny world that invites you in—an invitation to be both fierce and delicate, and to celebrate who you are, who you have been, and who you are becoming. My music isn’t just for listening—it’s for wandering, for imagining, and for finding a piece of yourself in a place you’d forgotten. I hope my songs resonate with you!
Listen / download Mollie Elizabeth “Vegas Venetian”
Watch the official lyric video
https://www.tiktok.com/@doeyedfairie
https://www.instagram.com/doeyedfairie/
https://neon.gold/
https://futures.music/
https://www.wearefoundations.com/
Frog Eyes Announces New LP, Shares "I See the Same Things" Single + Video via FLOOD | Spring Tour 5/16 | 'The Open Up' Out March 7th
Shares "I See the Same Things" Single + Video via FLOOD
Spring Tour Kicks Off May 16th
'The Open Up' Out March 7th via Paper Bag Records
Photo Credit: Soloman ChiniquayWATCH/LISTEN & SHARE: Frog Eyes - "I See the Same Things"Stream | Watch
WATCH/LISTEN & SHARE: Frog Eyes - "E-E-Y-O-R-E (That's Me!)"
Stream | Watch
LISTEN & SHARE: Frog Eyes - The Bees
Stream / Bandcamp PRAISE FOR FROG EYES
“E-E-Y-O-R-E (That’s Me!)” is an anthemic, angular and very catchy slab of Frog Eyes-style indie rock"
-Brooklyn Vegan
"Mercer’s singular voice, nightmare-bent and horror-pained, has put him in league with such eccentric vocalists as Tom Waits and Frank Black, and he shares with them the status of the truly inimitable."
- Pitchfork
"Beautiful, noisy and singularly Frog Eyes"
- Brooklyn Vegan
"Violet Psalms finds Frog Eyes going out in a burst of vitality. It's a mesmerizing album, full of world-weary terror and transcendent grace."
- Exclaim!
Today, Vancouver indie-rock greats Frog Eyes share "I See the Same Things," their latest single. The track kicks off with a steady, unwavering drumbeat, its rhythmic pulse inviting you to settle into the groove and ride along with the music. The guitar’s bright, resonant sound cuts through the air, full of emotion and texture. The vocals, laden with a soulful, twangy delivery, are impossible to ignore.
Frog Eyes - "I See the Same Things"This video was directed by Derek Janzen. Derek on the video, "This is the 6th video collaboration I’ve done with Frog Eyes now, but somehow is the first time we’ve managed to feature the band into the visual stew. This project felt special right from the beginning, and getting to work with Carey and Shyla, along with the collaboration of the Western Front to highlight this slice of Vancouver art history was deeply rewarding. With “I See the Same Things”, I think the song title along evokes the notion of what Carey is describing, this “smoothing” of things in the digital world. So spaces like the Western Front feel so precious as a tangible place for art to exist and continue to be created. And if I’ve done my job right, the act of viewing the archiving of these works and maintaining this history end up acting as a form of art in themselves."
Single Art
Tour Dates:
May 16 - The Dance Cave - Toronto
May 17 - 27 Club - Ottawa
May 18 - Casa Del Popolo - Montreal
May 21 - Wolfe Island Hotel - Kingston
May 22 - Sonic Hall - Guelph
May 23 - Mills Hardware - Hamilton
May 24 - Paddy's Underground - TillsonburgAlbum Bio:
Cult-rock band Frog Eyes announce their second album since reforming in 2021, and their tenth record in a consistently bewildering and inspired catalogue. Formed at the turn of the century in 2001, brushing shoulders with fellow travellers/beloved songwriters and musicians, beloved but never in the dead epicentre of a scene or a marketable, commodified era, this record bursts with a joyful fealty to songs, to albums, to playing the song you want to hear with the people you want to play with in a space that lifts it all up.
The Open Up, Frog Eyes’ 10th proper album, was tracked to tape by ace-engineer John Raham (Frazey Ford, Destroyer, Vancouver new-jazz recorder), recorded off-the-floor, with subsequent vocal overdubs and electric guitar and grand piano flourishes. Huffy-puffy rock and roll, open-ended mid- tempo dreaminess, sad and soft love songs: it’s an emotional and spatial journey, and meant to be experienced as an album. Electric guitar, piano-like synthesizer, frantic and frenetic drums and melodic bass fill up the corners and create a foundational support for the words, spit-sung into a special German tube microphone and shuttled out to a Studer tape machine to create the syllabic echoes, and the sounds as they converge in the centre of your speakers make us think of 1995 emo, at times, in its chord structures, a remnant/echo of a youth playing in that specific genre, post-punk in its wired up tautness and Fall-like square edges, weird blues, baby-bad-boy goth rock, and then, in its final third, a spacious rise-up that revels in more “open” modalities.
Obstinately refusing to have any digital devices in the “writing room” in the search for focused daily practice, riffs were recalled if strong, and words written into a D and D map book (the principal songwriter does not read music formally and relies on memory and triad chord shapes). Penned in the years of late 2023 and early 2024—tough, ugly years like so many years before them (sure), but, for the creators, feeling especially tough and ugly. Existential/ecological dread and jubilant hope/love are its two poles, a push-pull tension that mirrors the push-pull tension between rhythm and melody.Nine songs written for the record, and one last song written as a devotion song.
Underneath, (as in an underground river), the entire project, starting in 2001 and coming up on a 25th silver jubilee, is a flowing devotion to the idea of the album, the idea that a collection of songs could work together to create a body of meaning beyond each individual tune; absent are any overarching themes or conceits, present is a flood of pondering, of noticing, of trying to work it out, the sound of two years of blinking. Personnel are: Ryan Beattie, bass (and singing); Shyla Seller, Keys; Melanie Campbell, Drums; Carey Mercer, Guitar (and singing).
Album Art FROG EYES LINKSFacebook | Twitter | Instagram
EDVARD GRAHAM LEWIS shares new single "Switch" from forthcoming album 'Alreet?', out Jan 24th
- Forthcoming album ‘Alreet?’
out January 24th via Upp Records
“Outstanding… An intriguing mix of simmering songs, flickery electronica and much melody.” - Prog Magazine“Stirring art-pop powered by chilly synths and processed guitars.” - Uncut
"There is much to enjoy here. We hear a sort of Sparks-style wryness, a timbral richness - everything from glitchy electronics to cello to hurdy-gurdy - and copious examples of Lewis’ lyrical deftness.” - Electronic Sound
Today Maverick musician and artist Edvard Graham Lewis, best known for his work with post-punk titans Wire, returns with a second look at his forthcoming solo album, ‘Alreet?’, set for release on January 24th via Upp Records.
The cheery North Eastern greeting of the album’s title belies the tension and drama that lies within this album of majestic, experimental pop. Here, you’ll find visceral rhythms, warm electronics and multiple melodic layers, with words that are sometimes sung, sometimes spoken. Lewis’s deep, distinctive voice has matured into a rich baritone: portentous yet immediate - and it serves his material exceptionally well.
Following the urgent “Last Scene Of All”, where speeches from Shakespeare’s As You Like It and The Tempest set against chugging beats and siren squeals of guitar, today he shows his softer side with the album's sultry pop moment, "Switch". The track speaks to the blossoming of sensual optimism: a tale of attraction ("My guard it fell, and I was toast") and commitment ("You... you... me and you"). This is a deeply amorous song in which Lewis’s voice displays an intimacy that catches the ear and opens the heart.
Listen to “Switch” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLT6K41SyNI
Pre-order 'Alreet?' on Bandcamp: https://edvardgrahamlewis.bandcamp.com/
Although Edvard Graham Lewis is perhaps best known as bassist/vocalist/lyricist with Wire, Lewis’s solo work is equally powerful. Lyrically he remains one of our finest wordsmiths. His desire to edit his text to its essentials is smartly counterbalanced by an ability to seed double or triple meanings in his phraseology. Consequently, 'Alreet?' is studded with lines and couplets that snare our attention with unexpected hooks and barbs.
The album was co-produced with Swedish songwriter, producer and musician Max Lorentz, who has worked with everyone from acclaimed composer Magnus Lindberg, to ABBA’s Agnetha Faltskog. It features contributions from Wire cohorts Matthew Simms and Robert Grey, cello by Kevin Kirs Vestege, hurdy-gurdy by Harald Pettersson and guitars sampled from ex-Wire member Bruce Gilbert.
Aside from his work with Wire, Lewis has previously released a string of solo albums, under both his own name and the He Said and H-A-L-O monikers. Meanwhile, in partnership with Wire’s Bruce Gilbert, he created five albums of industrial strength studio manipulation as Dome. He has also recorded scores for documentaries, dance pieces and art installations, as well as recording collaborative albums with various musical luminaries, including Mike Watt, Jean-Louis Huhta, Ted Milton and Anna Livia Löwendahl-Atomic.
As ‘Alreet?’ clearly demonstrates, Lewis is still firmly facing the future and determined to unearth new sonic treasure. Indeed, this is one of the most starkly original albums you will hear all year.
‘Alreet?’ track list:
1. ‘Kinds of Whether’
2. ‘Diamond Shell’
3. ‘Switch’
4. ‘Last Scene of All’
5. ‘Bang!’
6. ‘I Still Remember’
7. ‘Key Weapon’
8. ‘Who the Hell’
'Alreet?' album artwork:
Links:
https://edvardgrahamlewis.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/earl_of_upp
Listen to Kathryn Mohr’s latest single, “Take It”
Listen to Kathryn Mohr’s latest single, “Take It”
The song appears on her debut album Waiting Room— out January 24 on The Flenser.
Photo by Senny Mau
Today, Oakland-based multi-instrumentalist Kathryn Mohr unveils the final standalone single from her debut album Waiting Room, out next week on The Flenser.
Titled "Take It," Mohr comments: "I rarely know what I'm talking about until way after a song is done. Lyrics are the result of emotional vomit and blind scribblings, understanding comes when I get as close as I can to being a listener rather than a creator." She concludes, "'Take It,' now that it's in the rear view mirror, is about abusive relationships, dream logic, dehumanization, superstition, power imbalances, and paradoxes. It's about getting dragged through ruble while holding on to a thread of hope and finally letting go of your own will because of your own growth. It's one of my favorite songs on the record."
Listen / share "Take It" on YouTube
Written and self-recorded over the course of a month in eastern Iceland, within the walls of a disused fish factory surrounded by remote nature, Mohr spent hours immersed in the writing and recording of Waiting Room in a windowless concrete room lit with a string of multicolored light bulbs, taking breaks to wander the factory or disappear up the shoreline—field recorder in hand. What came out of those recording hours are songs inspired by horror as extravagant as limb amputation by a faulty elevator and lyrics as maze-like and misguided as the torturous love and fears they depict.
During her period of isolation in the tiny fishing village of Stöðvarfjörður, Mohr was all too aware of a feeling of waiting, attuned to all the worm-like emotions and memories that crawl out of the ground when there is nothing and no one to distract. She spent most time in the factory, which had sat derelict for a decade, and was in the process of being repurposed into a space for artists, with many parts left untouched since the last days of fish production and other rooms made new with heat and light. This state of incompleteness, of loss of meaning, and repurposing became a mirror of her inner world, her abandoned ideas of home, love, affection, and meaning dissolved by traumatic memories of violence. Waiting Room is a processing of nearly untouchable emotions— of rebuilding the foundation for which elusive words like affection, passion and home can have a meaning weatherproof to and detangled from the direct, physical and emotional violence that permeates our experiences on earth.
The lyrics, drawn from her dream-like surroundings and non-linear memories depict the disturbing and intricate world of her mind as it grapples with the violence and horror of human nature while in a far away, otherworldly, landscape where sheep outnumber people. Mohr turns the dull discomfort of waiting for nothing into a resource, a spring of creativity and pushes her world outside of herself— Mohr made the album to let go of it.
Pre-order Waiting Room here ahead of its January 24 release date and catch her record release show the same day in Oakland, CA @ Thee Stork Club.
Waiting Room, track list:
DiverRatedDrivenPetrifiedTake ItElevatorProve ItHorizonlessCorneredWheelWaiting Room
