Laura Stevenson has quietly been putting out some of the best rock records year after year and not enough people are paying attention. This is me doing my part, aside from featuring her newest, self-titled album in Recommended Albums of August 2021. Album highlight “Don’t Think About Me” has been stuck in my head for the better part of a week, seamlessly tapping into the liquid memory/nostalgia banks of my childhood, hearing alt rock & pop songs from moody singer/songwriters on the radio in the 90s. Feeling the dry heat from the car vents and the carpeted seats and my boots still soaked from snow. Alongside pulling on my nostalgia strings, the song and album itself is one of the better rock records of the year – don’t let it slip through your fingers. And while you’re at it, check out Stevenson’s last few records too. You won’t regret it.
Laura Stevenson is available now via Don Giovanni Records – buy it HERE.
One of my favorite bands (and also specifically – LIVE bands) over the last six years, U.S. Girls has carved a niche all of their own, full of bravely experimental and confrontational disco and funk, tackling themes of domestic abuse, relationship balances, social injustice & inequalities, the traps of modern femininity and masculinity, among many other things. Bandleader + head songwriter Meg Remy started the project on her own, and has since expanded (at least the live & studio bands) into sprawling, seven-to-nine piece ensembles that pack a stage and lock in completely, sometimes stopping to allow space for pre-recorded poetry while the band stands staring at the audience, motionless. It’s a whole production. One worthy of your attention.
Their music is disorienting though, because most of the time the lyrics deal with absolutely harrowing scenarios. The music occasionally reflects this (more on 2015 album Heavy Light) with paranoid guitars and ominous synths & sound effects. But on In A Poem Unlimited, we’ll find tough themes backed up against grooving, moving disco & funk.
A quick fun fact is that (essentially) the live band for U.S. Girls has taken up their own project as Badge Époque Ensemble, lead by Remy’s husband Max Turnbull. If you’re looking for more white-hot funk that you’d find on a U.S. Girls album or in the improvisational moments of a ‘Girls live show, check out Badge’s music. But for now, U.S. Girls. Listen to this band.
Going through a massive Portishead (specifically Third) phase and just wanted to share something quick to hopefully spur someone to listen to the album for the first time or maybe revisit it if they haven’t in a while.
“Threads” is the album closer and boy howdy does it leave things off on a sour note. Not only is there a creeping sense of dread throughout the whole song, spurred by a whining synthetic string note that hisses throughout, but also a spindly, purposefully inconspicuous guitar line that just sounds like someone standing around a corner, trying not to be noticed. Haunting horns moan out from crawl spaces, and Beth Gibbons sounds completely worn out until the end, where she confronts her ghostly antagonist, screaming “damned one”. It’s a clutching paranoia that fizzles out with a fog horn-like buzzing electronic, echoing into the dark night like a flood light.
The whole album is incredible. A mix of prog rock, experimental kraut rock, electronics, shades of Portishead’s previous trip hop sound, as well as many more sonic adventures. Nothing out there like it, that’s for sure.
Hard to calculate the excitement I’m feeling towards the release of the forthcoming Circuit des Yeux album, -io, coming October 22 via Matador Records. Our first taste of the record, “Dogma”, definitely felt like a teaser of some large iceberg dwelling beneath our proverbial consciousness, whereas the follow-up “Sculpting The Exodus” is a hulking behemoth, with dramatic strings, thumping percussion and bone-tingling vocals from Haley Fohr. Music that strips away flesh and stabs feeling right into our spinal cord. If you don’t feel any emotion while hearing Fohr’s voice… I’ve got bigger questions for you. The experience of a CdY album is usually an experience best consumed whole, so I’m really looking forward to seeing how this momentous piece fits into the sculpture that is -io.
-io is out October 22 via Matador. Pre-order the album HERE.
A little late on posting this “on time” but you know I would never just dismiss posting about a Mr Twin Sister song. You already know it’s good. Press play and click buy.
Even though I like to think I know a good bit of “classic” Japanese music (I don’t), I’m always slapped across the face with even more classics that I’ve been too ignorant to check out. Case in point: the title track of this Ryuichi Sakamoto album, “Thousand Knives”. I heard it for the first time the other night while waiting for Jessy Lanza to come on and it totally blew my brain apart. It was the first time in a while I had to shazam (caveat – when have we been out to hear songs in the wild? I do not know every song).
It’s one of those great songs too that totally make you forget about its near 10-minute length. A robotized spoken intro makes way for a carbonated, peppy groove that makes up the base for the rest of the song. Just beautiful textures and sounds creaking and dripping out of every little nook of this song’s production – like a well-oiled machine (but one having a good time). Once this groove is established, different instruments take the lead and offer a different solo on the song, each with its own flair. Some marching-band like tom drums rattle in, an ominous, obviously very-influential-to-video game-composers synth tone, and of course an absolutely ripping guitar solo. I was bobbing my head like crazy hearing this for the first time. Each following part had me shaking my head and muttering “god damn!” to myself.
Get to know Austin-based singer/songwriter Natalie Jane Hill ahead of the release of her sophomore album, Solely, coming October 29 via Dear Life Records, with this new track “Orb Weaver”, which has some of the hottest finger-picked guitar I’ve heard in some time. Hill’s intricate playing is what first hooked me into the track, but more subtle flourishes emerge as it develops, like gentle slide guitar + strings, deepening the atmosphere. Hill’s voice too is pretty unique, with a nostalgic vibrato and sharpness in certain deliveries that brings me thoughts of Joan Shelley, Jessica Pratt or Aldous Harding on her first, more folk-forward debut. Comparisons aside, I think if you dig any of those names, guitar playing of any nature, and just getting lost in a wistful but steady tune – check this out.
Solely is out October 29 via Dear Life – preorder the album HERE.
Start off your week with a little funk goodness. Austro-Bulgarian producer TOMÁ (aka Tomá Ivanov) just dropped his debut LP ATOM at the end of June (yes – on the paradigm-shifting 6/30 release date – it must be fate), which features plenty of dynamic compositions of electronic-shaded jazz, complete with funky key solos, booming synthetic bass, solid vocal features and more. This song I’ve pulled was by and far my favorite, rustling up remembrance to some of Brainfeeder’s more recent output like Brandon Coleman and other funky labels like Tru Thoughts. Stay tuned til the end of “Green” to hear a wailing solo that ends far too soon – extended version please!
Walked into a club last night to see Lightning Bug and this was the song that was playing for me. What a gift. I discovered this song purely via Spotify’s “Suggested Additions” while making my playlist Rose Garden 2AM all the way back in 2019, which I honestly find hard to believe. Also disclaimer – I’m gonna hand my discovery to other crate diggers more skilled than I including it in their own collections and the tech giant noticing. I’m not going to give Spotify any credit. Thanks crate diggers. I should note that the song didn’t make the cut in Rose Garden (which has 75 songs – I’m a dumbass) but it IS in my playlist Sand Dollar Jukebox, which I highly recommend.
Anyways, this is a cover of an Alessi Brothers song from the year prior, 1976. Not much is known about Innovations, except they were a Peruvian band that released at least one seven inch, the one pictured in the YouTube video above. The original song is a good song – the melody and hook are insane, but Innovations give it an extra summer edge with a bit of added instrumentation, a bit more natural bounce, and a cinematic, warbly early synthesizer backing. An ultimate yacht rock classic that was partially buried in the sands of time. What a beautiful thing. I just checked out the b-side to this single and it’s also fantastic.
But back to hearing this song in a club. I’m gonna go out on a limb (just based on the amount of views on the various YT uploads, as well as the high-but-not-outrageous streams) and say that most people didn’t know the song. Nevertheless, I saw multiple couples and groups of people already singing along to the chorus on the second time around, people were dancing, whipping out their phones to figure out what the song was. It has an otherworldly, magical feeling. Before this song starts to show up in every schmuck’s DJ set (which isn’t a bad thing), make sure you give it a spin or 30 on your own, especially as the summer starts to simmer down. But remember – yacht rock never dies.
A stream of consciousness music blog, active since 2010. Established in Ann Arbor, MI, currently in NYC.
Send me music: warmsubmissions @ gmail
I hope you enjoy your time here.
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October 16: Gotts Street Park - Somewhere Between The Mars Volta - Lucro Sucio; Unfinished Business Two Shell - Infinite Now @ - Autosmile
A stream of consciousness music blog, active since 2010. Established in Ann Arbor, MI, currently in NYC.
Send me music: warmsubmissions @ gmail
I hope you enjoy your time here.
