Alexander Laurence's Blog, page 1865

Jesus And Mary Chain @ Vogue Theatre

All Vancouver photos by Bev Davies.

Seminal Southern California Punks CH3 Return with New Album; 'Put 'Em Up' Out August 18; New Song Premieres on OC Weekly

Seminal Southern California Punks CH3 Return with New Album; 'Put 'Em Up' Out August 18Band Set To Perform at Punk Rock Bowling This Weekend; It's Not Dead Festival on August 26New Song Premiering on OC WeeklySeminal Southern California punk rock band CH3 have announced the August 18th release of 'Put 'Em Up', their first complete album of news songs in over 15 years.A new song titled "Not That It Matters" is now streaming exclusively on OC Weekly: http://www.ocweekly.com/music/ch-3-whets-our-appetite-for-their-first-full-album-in-decades-with-not-that-it-matters-8137235.The track is also available now as a free download athttps://www.toneden.io/ch3/post/channel-3-not-that-it-matters-official-audio.The album announcement is timed with the long-running band's appearance at this weekend's Punk Rock Bowling in Las Vegas, NV (Sat. May 27 @ Beauty Bar) where they will play alongside The Mr. T Experience.CH3 is also one of the dozens of acts scheduled to perform at It's Not Dead 2 on August 26 in San Bernardino, CA.In between festival dates, the band will play a series of shows in Denver, CO, El Prado, NM and Albuquerque in June.See dates below.Contemporaries of fellow So Cal punks Social Distortion, Bad Religion, T.S.O.L., Circle Jerks, etc., CH3 has been steadily touring the world since first forming in Cerritos, CA in 1980.With 'Put 'Em Up', CH3 has delivered a career-defining album. Written and recorded in the wary post-election days of 2017, the collection of 10 songs are connected as a tightly focused novella, a ‘concept album’ by nature of the timeframe and frame of mind that it was recorded in.A timely and urgent commentary on current events, with lyrics inspired by the clean, visceral, and cinematic writings of Jim Harrison ("Legends Of The Fall"), some of the songs reference back to the band's earlier political works such as "Manzanar", as those concerns seem more relevant than ever.Other songs deal with the politics of the heart and themes that have become a trademark of the bittersweet CH3 songbook.The music remains refined punk with traces of classic '77 Brit to 80's hardcore, power pop rock, which combined, make up the CH3 sound.'Put 'Em Up' was produced by Jay Lansford (Agent Orange) and features artwork by esteemed artist Lucky Nakazawa. The album will be released via all digital retailers and on vinyl through TKO Records.Album pre-orders will launch soon.Upcoming shows:May 27 Beauty Bar Las Vegas, NV (Punk Rock Bowling)Jun 23 Streets Of London Pub Denver, COJun 24 Taos Mesa Brewing Mothership El Prado, NMJun 25 Launchpad Albuquerque, NMAug 26 Glen Helen Amphitheater formerly San Manuel Amphitheater San Bernardino, CA (It's Not Dead)

Stream Chastity Belt's new album I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone

LISTEN TO CHASTITY BELT'S I USED TO SPEND SO MUCH TIME ALONE IN FULL VIA NPR MUSIC



FULL ALBUM STREAM: Chastity Belt - I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone

Starting today, you can head over to NPR Music for a First Listen of Chastity Belt's highly-anticipated new album I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone. "Three albums into its career, Chastity Belt showcase an emboldened musicality and matured songcraft..." writes NPR, adding "I Used To Spend So Much Time Alone is a thoughtful, reflective album...that allows us to know a new, perhaps truer side to the artists."

I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone is out Friday, June 2nd on LP, CD, digital, and cassette and includes three bonus tracks. The band also announced a mid-summer West Coast tour in addition to their upcoming US and overseas tours. See below for a full list of dates. 

TOUR DATES:

06.01.17 - Seattle, WA - Record Release show at The Crocodile *
06.14.17 - Milwaukee, WI - Cactus Club #
06.15.17 - Chicago, IL - Subterranean #
06.16.17 - Detroit, MI - Jumbo's #
06.17.17 - Toronto, ON - Longboat Hall at the Great Hall #
06.18.17 - Montreal, QC - Bar Le Ritz #
06.19.17 - Boston, MA - Brighton Music Hall #
06.20.17 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg #
06.22.17 - Philadelphia, PA - PhilaMOCA #
06.23.17 - Washington, DC - Songbyrd %
06.24.17 - Durham, NC - The Pinhook %
06.25.17 - Asheville, NC - The Mothlight %
06.27.17 - Atlanta, GA - Masquerade (Purgatory) %
06.28.17 - Nashville, TN - DRKMTTR %
06.29.17 - St. Louis, MO - Off Broadway %
06.30.17 - Iowa City, IA - Gabe's %
07.01.17 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th St. Entry %
07.28.17 - Vancouver, BC - The Cobalt
07.29.17 - Olympia, WA - Obsidian
07.30.17 - Arcata, CA - Outer Space
07.31.17 - Santa Rosa, CA - Arlene Francis Center
08.01.17 - San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
08.02.17 - Fresno, CA - Strummer's
08.03.17 - Los Angeles, CA - Teregram Ballroom
08.04.17 - San Diego, CA - Space Bar
08.07.17 - Santa Ana, CA - Constellation Room
08.08.17 - Santa Barbara, CA - Velvet Jones
08.09.17 - Santa Cruz, CA - Crepe Place
08.11.17 - Portland, OR - Star Theater
08.12.17 - Covington, KY - River City Jam
09.04.17 - Margate, UK - The Dugout
09.05.17 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell Social Club
09.06.17 - Manchester, UK - Star and Garter
09.07.17 - Newcastle, UK - Cluny
09.08.17 - Glasgow, UK - Broadcast
09.10.17 - Isle of White, UK - Bestival
09.11.17 - Bristol, UK - Exchange
09.12.17 - Nottingham, UK - Bodega
09.13.17 - Brighton, UK - Green Door Store
09.14.17 - London, UK - Garage
09.15.17 - Brussels, BE - Witloof Bar
09.16.17 - Cologne, DE - King Georg &
09.17.17 - Berlin, DE - Kantine Am Berghain &
09.19.17 - Vienna, AT - Arena &
09.20.17 - Lausanne, CH - La Romandie Club &
09.21.17 - Paris, FR - Espace B &
09.22.17 - Rotterdam, NL - V11
09.23.17 - Utrecht, NL - ACU &

* - w/ So Pitted, Jenn Champion
# - w/ SNEAKS
% - w/ Darren Hanlon
& - w/ Magic Potion

Sturgill Simpson to join Guns N' Roses on select stadium tour dates this August

STURGILL SIMPSON TO JOIN GUNS N’ ROSES ON SELECT STADIUM TOUR DATES THIS AUGUST
photo credit: CrackerfarmSturgill Simpson will join Guns N’ Roses on select stadium tour dates this August including Denver’s Mile High Stadium on August 2, Little Rock’s AR War Memorial Stadium on August 5 and Miami’sMarlins Stadium on August 8. The performances expand Simpson’s already impressive 2017 tour schedule, which features headline shows at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre, Austin’s Austin360 Amphitheater, New York’s Radio City Music Hall, DC’s Merriweather Post Pavilion and L.A.’s Greek Theatre among others. See below for complete tour details.The 2017 performances culminate a series of groundbreaking years for Simpson, who recently won Best Country Album at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards for his acclaimed new album  A Sailor’s Guide To Earth  and performed “All Around You” on the live broadcast. Watch the full performancehere.Out now on Atlantic Records (purchase here), A Sailor’s Guide To Earthcontinues to receive overwhelming critical acclaim with recent “Best of 2016” coverage running at The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, NPR Music,Rolling Stone, Stereogum, Pitchfork, Salon, Billboard, The Atlantic, Paste, SPIN, American Songwriter among many others. Moreover, since the album’s release, Simpson has performed on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah,” “Conan,” “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” “Charlie Rose” and, most recently, the 2017 debut episode of “Saturday Night Live.”

STURGILL SIMPSON 2017 TOUR DATESJuly 7—Charlotte, NC—Charlotte Metro Credit Union AmphitheatreJuly 8—Cary, NC—Koka Booth AmphitheatreJuly 14—Atlanta, GA—Fox TheatreJuly 15—Louisville, KY—Forecastle FestivalJuly 16—Birmingham, AL—Sloss Music & Arts FestivalJuly 30—Niigata, Japan—Fuji Rock FestivalAugust 2—Denver, CO—Mile High Stadium*August 5—Little Rock, AR—AR War Memorial Stadium*August 8—Miami, FL—Marlins Stadium*September 7—Sugar Land, TX—Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land September 8—Grand Prairie, TX—Verizon TheatreSeptember 9—Austin, TX—Austin360 AmphitheaterSeptember 14—New York, NY—Radio City Music HallSeptember 15—Columbia, MD—Merriweather Post PavilionSeptember 16—Boston, MA—Blue Hills Bank PavilionSeptember 19—Detroit, MI—Fox Theatre September 21—St. Louis, MO—Fox TheatreSeptember 22—Chicago, IL—Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly IslandSeptember 25—Morrison, CO—Red Rocks AmphitheatreSeptember 29—Portland, OR—Arlene Schnitzer Concert HallSeptember 30—Redmond, WA—Marymoor AmphitheaterOctober 6—Los Angeles, CA—Greek Theatre*with Guns N’ Roses

WXPN Debuts New Joseph Arthur Track: "Pictures Of A Life"

JOSEPH ARTHUR TO PERFORM REDEMPTION’S SONIN ITS ENTIRETY DURING A LIMITED RUN TOUR  REAL WORLD TO RELEASE 15TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION OF REDEMPTION’S SONWITH BONUS MATERIAL ON JUNE 23rd WXPN Debuts "Pictures Of A Life"http://thekey.xpn.org/2017/05/24/listen-joseph-arthurs-long-lost-song-picture-life-get-news-redemptions-son-reissue/  May 25, 2017 – Anyone who has followed the career of Joseph Arthur since he was personally discovered by Peter Gabriel back in 1997, knows Arthur has never been an artist to look back.  Over the course of his career to date, he’s released fourteen albums under his own name, eleven official EP’s and has been involved with several high profile side projects including Fistful Of Mercy (with Ben Harper & Dhani Harrison).  However, when it was brought to Arthur’s attention that 2017 marked the 15th Anniversary of one of his most beloved albums, Redemption’s Son, he decided he wanted to do something to honor the occasion. Joseph Arthur will also be embarking on a limited run solo tour beginning on June 20th in Boston where he’ll play the album from beginning to end. “I’ve never done this album from start to finish live,” Arthur remarked.  “But Redemption’s Son was always a special record to me and my fans and this clearly seemed like the right time to do it.  As I’ve been saying recently to my friends, listening to this album again after all of these years has re-inspired me which honestly was a complete surprise.” On June 23rd, Real World Records, will re-issue the original album (with its original artwork) along with nine bonus tracks all of which have been previously unreleased.  Redemption’s Son 15th Anniversary Edition will be available on 180-gram double LP, double CD, and digitally.  It will be the first time the album is available on vinyl ever. The nine previously unreleased songs now form a “lost album” which Arthur has named Morning Star. “We decided to turn these tracks into their own album called 'Morning Star' rather than a collection of this that and the other thing,” Arthur remarked.  “It's a great feeling when the past burps up a gift. Things forgotten and submerged by the vortex of time which reveals its illusions thru a process such as this. First listens of old things are a lot like taking the wrapping paper off a gift. That excited smile comes over you (hopefully) and it's kinda wonderful. But soon you get transported back to the time these things were new and then they become fresh elements to work with. No more a gift but a responsibility. Like if you got a dog for Christmas. What they say about a work of art being never finished but abandoned is accurate. And I learned here that you can essentially un-abandon them. We took these old things and we set out to make something current.” WXPN has just now debuted "Pictures Of A Life" from that album.   You can listen here: http://thekey.xpn.org/2017/05/24/listen-joseph-arthurs-long-lost-song-picture-life-get-news-redemptions-son-reissue/ You can also listen to "Ghost" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAuP1oR9cKQ Another track from  Morning Star  will debut next week. Upon it’s original release in 2002, the album received rave reviews on both sides of the pond: “Joseph Arthur's brilliant third album proves he was worth the wait
'Redemption's Son exhibits the sure sign of a classic album. The best songs are not nervously loaded at the front. Some of the real gems - the slow, creepy Permission, the unbearably beautiful Favorite Girl and the irresistibly poppy In The Night - emerge nearly an hour into the album.'-  The Times  (UK) “...added intimacy without sacrificing dreamy magnetism... 
'2000's Come To Where I'm From was a near masterpiece. This time round, Grammy-bagging mixer Tchad Blake has replaced T-Bone Burnett as producer and brought added intimacy without sacrificing dreamy magnetism... Arthur's vocals [are] as much soothing balm as quiet venom. Blake's deft touch makes bedfellows of gentle acoustic guitar and gliding strings - I Would Rather Hide and Termite Song are stunning... If there's really a God, the Super Furries-goosing-up-Cockney Rebel wizardry of In The Night ought to be the FM smash of the summer.'”
 Uncut  (UK) “In the current pop singer-songwriter renaissance, Arthur's art stands out as the most emotionally naked and musically ambitious.” -Entertainment Weekly (US)   Joseph Arthur –Redemption’s Son 15th Anniversary Tour 6/20 - Boston MA - Great Scott6/21 - Sellersville, PA – Sellersville Theatre 18946/23 - New York NY - City Winery6/24 - Vienna VA - Jammin' Java6/26 - Evanston IL - SPACE6/27 - St Paul, MN– Turf Club6/29 - Cleveland OH – Music Box7/1 -   Ann Arbor, MI – The Ark7/11 - Los Angeles CA -  Teragram Ballroom7/12 - San Francisco CA – Brick and Mortar Music Hall7/14 - Portland OR - Doug Fir Lounge7/15 - Seattle WA - The Triple Door

Watch Bonnie's "No Time To Cry"!

MAMA TRIED, BUT THERE'S NO MORE TIME TO CRYBonnie 'Prince' Billy's new release  Best Troubador  flips through the Merle Haggard songbook, landing on pages unmoored from their time and located anew. With such a prolific catalog of resplendent songs spanning a nearly fifty year career, Bonnie and the Bonafide United Musicians were tasked with undertaking the singular and unwavering creativity of such a figure.  Best Troubador  does just that, representing an earnest and faithful reworking of Haggard's great songs. Released on one of Merle's lesser known albums, 1996, "No Time to Cry" is a truly poignant and deft reinterpretation of Iris DeMent's ballad on loss and growing older. Bonny and Co. have released a peek behind the curtain with a "No Time to Cry" music video of images taken during the live recording sessions for  Best Troubador !
Watch the video for "No Time to Cry" below! Plus, there's more! For the first time, both "Mama Tried" and "No Time to Cry" are now available to purchase as a digital single together on the Drag City site, iTunes and Bandcamp. So hit that download button and listen to both songs on your PC, Mac, iPhone, android, tablet or whatever! WATCH "NO TIME TO CRY" HERE Bonnie 'Prince' Billy Online:  Drag City-http://www.dragcity.com/artists/bonnie-prince-billy
Order Now- http://www.dragcity.com/products/mama-tried-bw-no-time-to-cry 
Bandcamp-https://bonnieprincebilly.bandcamp.com/album/mama-tried-b-w-no-time-to-cry
iTunes/Apple Music-http://itunes.apple.com/album/id1240318218 

WATCH PARAMORE PERFORM “TOLD YOU SO” ON THE LATE LATE SHOW!

WATCH PARAMORE PERFORM “TOLD YOU SO” ONTHE LATE LATE SHOW WITH JAMES CORDEN!FULL PERFORMANCE HERE

Next up, Paramore will perform on Good Morning America’s Summer Concert Series on August 25th!The band recently announced their upcoming U.S. tour, titled “Tour Two” with support from Best Coast.  They will be hitting the road on September 6th kicking off the tour in Jacksonville, FL (tour dates below).
“After Laughter”  was recorded at Nashville’s historic RCA Studio A – Paramore’s first time recording in their own beloved hometown.
AFTER LAUGHTER OUT NOW!
SEPTEMBER 6              Jacksonville, FL                  Moran Theater+8              Miami, FL                           Fillmore Miami Beach at Jackie Gleason Theater+9              Orlando, FL                        Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts+11           Charlotte, NC                     Ovens Auditorium13           Washington, D.C.              MGM National Harbor Theater15           Detroit, MI                          The Fox Theatre16-17     Chicago, IL                           Riot Fest *19           Sioux City, IA                      Orpheum Theatre21           Denver, CO                         BellCo Theatre22           Orem, UT                            Utah Valley University Events Center24           Oakland, CA                         Paramount Theatre26           Los Angeles, CA                 Greek Theater27           Phoenix, AZ                        Comercia Theatre29           Houston, TX                       Smart Financial Center at Sugar Land30           Dallas, TX                             Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie
OCTOBER 2              Atlanta, GA                        The Fox Theater4              New York, NY                    Radio City Music Hall7              Boston, MA                       Boston Opera House10           Bethlehem, PA                  Sands Bethlehem Event Center12           Montreal, QC                     St. Denis Theatre13           Toronto, ON                       Massey Hall15           Akron, OH                           Akron Civic Theatre17           Nashville, TN                      Ryman Auditorium

Dead Heavens Release Song “Adderall Highway” Today

Dead Heavens Release Song “Adderall Highway” Today



Features Members of Quicksand, Cults, White Zombie

Listen + Share “Adderall Highway”  Here

New Album Whatever Witch You Are Out June 16

East Coast Tour Starts June 14

New York City’s Dead Heavens, the psych-rock project of guitarist and frontman Walter Schreifels (Vanishing Life, Gorilla Biscuits, Rival Schools, Quicksand, and more), Paul Kostabi (Youth Gone Mad, White Zombie, Psychotica), Drew Thomas (Youth of Today, Bold, Into Another), and Nathan Aguilar (Cults), have released their song “Adderall Highway” today via Big Takeover. The song appears on their forthcoming album Whatever Witch You Are , out June 16 on Dine Alone Records. Listen and share “Adderall Highway” here, and pre-order the album here.
 
Walter Schreifels tells Big Takeover about the inspiration behind the song: "Adderall Highway was born somewhere between Düsseldorf and Salzburg at the speed of 115-120mph. We were on our first European tour and taking advantage of Germany's hyper-efficient autobahn system to make up some lost time between shows. As we watched the idyllic German countryside whirr by our windows the Riff to Adderall Highway stirred in our very souls."
 
Whatever Witch You Are, their first full-length, plays effortlessly as a new-classic blues rock album— a new-millennium Fresh Cream or Let it Bleed — only with sharp-angular sounds, noticeably psyche inflections, and melodies that seem wrought out of rebar: strong, pared down, and purposeful at every point. If anything, their musical origins have permitted Dead Heavens to approach blues and psyche rock unnostalgically, arriving at an audibly honest sound, stripped of any of the tassels or affectation. The drums hit heavy. The guitars hit heavy. Yet hovering above them both is always Schreifels’ sandier vocals, urging us on through life’s endless freakishness and frustrations.

“Many of these songs are love songs,” Schreifels explains, “ Basic Cable is about love but a modern love that’s lost its way— when couples are stuck at home, binge-watching or glued to their phones, absently doing the dishes, unsatisfied until they finally realize that what they really need is to just go outside. This song is for when they finally getout there .” The pent-energy of this opening single explodes and never lets up, fueling quasi-Krautrock stretches in Goldtooth or Bad Luck Child , coasters like Silver Sea orExperience , or the pounding rock of Adderall Highway and Away from the Speed . Following a burst of earlier singles like History in my Hands and Feel Low , this album is made for One Big Listen, and its lone rest stop, The Moon Will Listen (But Not the Sun) , begins reflectively but shifts into full rollick by its second half.

Dead Heavens first coalesced during a solo tour for Schreifels, in 2013, with Thomas and Aguilar as backing band. Swapping and trading music for road listening— Cream, My Bloody Valentine, White Fence— together the three distilled the musical mood that would soon characterize Dead Heavens. Upon returning to New York, Aguilar reacquainted Thomas and Schreifels with musician, painter, and sound engineer Paul Kostabi, who felicitously still owned the reel-to-reel on which Schreifels had recorded Gorilla Biscuits’ Start Today in 1989, and— in another claim to fame— had coined the title of Guns N’ Roses Use Your Illusion . Their sympathies obvious, then, they leapt into recording at Kostabi’s Thunderdome Studios, and welcomed on Kostabi as a second lead guitar. A shotgun home studio set in the marshes of Piermont, New York, Thunderdome also guarded a trove of 70’s recording reels from Black Sabbath, The James Gang, and Jimi Hendrix— reels that played between takes and liberally infused the cauldron with an inspiringly darker magic.

But as the title tells you, Whatever Witch You Are enjoins us to radically accept this darker magic, “in the sense of accepting a strong, strange, powerful woman who freaks out people precisely for all her powers,” Schreifels says, “and not just in love, but acceptance in a modern world that can often isolate us, and make us feel like freaks. For the full 36 minutes of this record, we want people to be able to embrace this freakishness.” Even when our world’s havoc-tossed, and our heavens dead, the lifers out there will always shrug it off and ready themselves for the strange new era.



Dead Heavens Tour Dates
6/14 - New Haven, CT - BAR - New Haven
6/15 - Newport, RI - The Parlor
6/16 - Brooklyn, NY - Union Pool
6/17 - Garwood, NJ - Crossroads
6/18 - Washington, DC - DC9 Nightclub
6/19 - Philadelphia, PA - Kung Fu Necktie
 
Dead Heavens Links:
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

Saint Sister Return With New Single 'Causing Trouble'

Saint Sister – Causing Trouble, The New Single

Listen Here: https://soundcloud.com/saint-sister/causing-trouble-2


“The thick, eerie electro-folk of Ireland’s Saint Sister, not so much haunted as delicately possessed” –  The Guardian

It’s easy to get lost in the minimal, chasmic, but beautifully arranged soundscapes” –  Stereogum

“Delicate, full, desperate vocal shine” –  Entertainment Weekly

“What was I doing all those years?”, asks Morgan Macintyre, one half of the mesmerising Irish duo Saint Sister on their latest single “Causing Trouble”. Reflecting on past relationships and the age old truth that the people you knew in the past never really change despite the fact that everything else does. “The song is about transitioning, from Belfast to Dublin, from an old love to a new, and the gaps that can be found between you and another person or place when people transition at different paces and in different directions."Causing Trouble pulls from a wide range of disparate influences. The arrangement courtesy of Gemma Doherty takes the shimmer of 90’s pop stalwarts Moby and Massive Attack,combining luscious harp textures, crisp vocal harmony with 808 thuds and subterranean bass to create a chasmic slice of modern electronic folk.

The track builds on the success of 2016’s Tin Man. Released in December via the Communion Singles Club the single was met with widespread critical approval and championed on BBC Radio 1 by Huw Stephens. The success of this single saw the band named as “The Best New Band in Ireland” by the readers of The Irish Times as well as receive a nomination for Song of the Year by the prestigious Choice Music prize alongside other Irish heavy hitters Niall Horan and James Vincent McMorrow. The band has had an extremely busy year on the road with a schedule including performances at the BBC introducing stage at Glastonbury, Longitude and Electric Picnic as well as standout showcase performances at Eurosonic and The Reeperbahn festival. They were privileged to join Brooklyn outfit Mutual Benefit on their UK tour in November and last month they were hand picked by Lisa Hannigan to support her on an extensive 20 date European tour.

The band return to the UK in May for a series of headline dates, including a show in the intimate confines of the St Pancras Old Church. Having played their last London show to a sold out Roundhouse, the stark contrast of the ornate and beautiful church will create an ambience not to be missed. At home they perform at the prestigious National Concert Hall, in early June. This is set to be a monumental occasion for the band, a particularly impressive feat given that they have only played 3 headline shows in Dublin to date.

FROM THE BAND
Morgan: There are a lot of references to Belfast - where I grew up - that I wasn't quite aware of at the time.The references to Van Morrison's 'And it Stoned Me' came about after hearing a cover version of the song.
We were playing a gig in the Ulster Hall, Belfast and Conor O'Brien (Villagers) sang the song. His performance opened up the lyrics for me and strangely helped me access Van Morrison in a way I'd been softly rebelling against for a while (having been spoon fed Van Morrison from a young age). I suddenly wanted to gobble up Van again and embrace the music and stories and poetry from Belfast that I used to spend a lot of time with. I think I had shrugged a lot of that off over the last few years as I tried to make my home in Dublin. In doing so maybe I ignored - or forgot - a lot of the raw elements and influences that I used to draw from. The Basin referenced in the song is the Blessington Basin, in Dublin. It's a little park, known as the Secret Garden, which used to be a drinking reservoir. I live right beside it now. It kind of comes out of nowhere. All this water just appears out of a quiet, grotty, forgotten Dublin street, like a mirage. The song is about transitioning, from Belfast to Dublin, from an old love to a new, and the gaps that can be found between you and another person or place when people transition at different paces and in different directions.

Gemma: Morgan first brought some lyrics and melodic ideas and I started working on the arrangement, that's generally how we work together. From the start it felt quite laid back and spacious. I'd been listening to loads of 90s tunes, Moby and Massive Attack, and wanted to keep the verses sparse and give the chorus plenty of space to soar. The first attempt had no harp on it, but it worked its way in when we began playing it live, as its such a big part of our live show. We had loads of craic in the studio with this one with Alex who co-produced it with us. At the last minute we found a beautiful old Wurlitzer in the attic which had some electrical problems; one of us would have to sit on it while the other played to stop it from humming, so it just about made it in!

Tour Dates
27 May - Mountshannon Arts Festival - Clare, Ireland
30 May - The Louisiana - Bristol, UK
31 May - Ort Cafe - Birmingham, UK
1 June - St Pancras Old Church - London, UK
2 June - Gullivers - Manchester, UK
3 June - The Old Hairdressers - Glasgow, UK
7 June - National Concert Hall - Dublin, Ireland
29 June - Innenhof Rathaus - Binzen, Germany
30 June - Guggenheim Kulturhotel - Liestal, Switzerland
1 July - Cafe Verkehrt - Murg-Oberhof, Germany
2 July - Werkraum Schöpflin - Brombach, Germany
3 July - Kesselhaus - Freiburg, Germany
4 July - Fernet Branca - St Louis, France
13 July - Earagail Arts Festival - Donegal, Ireland
14 July - The Band Room - Yorkshire, UK
15 July - Latitude Festival - Suffolk, UK
29 July - Galway Arts Festival - Ireland
1-3 Sep - Other Voices @ Electric Picnic - Ireland
1 Oct - 7 Layers Festival - Amsterdam, Netherlands

The Warlocks @ Vogue Theatre

All Vancouver photos by Bev Davies.