#Crushing Debut LP

[seeminglyranch87]

Taylor & Travis Timeline

October 2023 - part 2

October 16 - Travis and Jason attend Game 1 of NCLS in Philadelphia

People Magazine release an article (x)

"Taylor's unlike anyone Travis has dated before," 

"It was very unexpected for his friends, but he's so into her and very, very happy."

The insider continues, "Some people thought he was just joking around about the bracelet and having a crush on her earlier this summer, but he was serious about it," referring to Travis' attempt to give Taylor a friendship bracelet with his number on it at her Eras Tour in KC

They are "having a great time getting to know one another"

"They make a very cute couple."

Another People article is released the same day (x)

"They've been texting and talking on the phone between the pockets of time they get to spend with each other,"

"[Travis] knows what he signed up for with this attention, but they've spent time under the radar too. They're giving things a real try,"

Rumours circulate that Travis and Taylor have looked at a house up for sale together (x) as reported by Jenna Bush Hagar on the NBC talk show; Today with Hoda & Jenna.

“A friend from Kansas City texted me there might be news they’re buying a house,”

October 18 - New Heights Podcast episode 59 (x)

Travis & Jason talk about security (timestamp 5:30)

Jason Kelce asks his brother Travis "Have you had to enact any security of your own? Do you feel like you're a security guard when you are with Taylor?"

Travis responded, "I feel like whenever I'm on a date, I'm always having the sense that I'm a man in the situation. I'm protective, yeah, for sure. You always have to have that feeling or self-awareness, I guess."

Travis is trolled by intern Brandon (see photo below)

Travis and Jason have a laugh about Taylor meeting their dad Ed and wondering what he would talk to her about? (45:10)

Travis reveals that he and Taylor’s cameos on SNL were not planned. They had attended the recording of Season 49’s premiere episode in support of good friend and feature musical guest Ice Spice. (1:14:05)

Taylor releases "The Cruelest Summer" playlist which includes Cruel Summer live from the the Era's Tour and Cruel Summer - The LP Giobbi Remix in a bid for Number 1. (x)

ET publishes an article (x)

"They have a lot of fun together and [Taylor] loves how chivalrous [Travis] is," the source says. "Taylor feels at ease with Travis and they are already very comfortable around each other."

ET's source notes that "it's been easy" for Taylor and Travis "to connect because they have similar values and goals when it comes to their personal lives and careers."

Rumours continue to circulate that Travis has bought a $6 million home in Kansas City that provides more privacy and security and that he took Taylor to view the property. (x)(x)

October 19 - ET is informed that the duo is fully committed to their relationship and the future (x)

"Travis and Taylor are all in. The two are very into each other and are enjoying their time together but are also planning for the future. Taylor starts her international tour in November, and Travis is planning to be there to spend time with her," the source says. "Travis and Taylor are very serious about their careers, and the two bond over that and want to show support for each other whenever they can."

During week 10 of the NFL season, Travis and the Kansas City Chiefs enjoy a bye week, providing him with a brief respite. Coincidentally, during this very week, Taylor is set to take the stage for three consecutive nights in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from Nov. 9 to 11, marking her debut international Era Tour performances. This fortunate scheduling overlap grants Travis the opportunity to be in attendance.

Taylor papped in LA dining at a sushi restaurant with Zoë Kravitz, Selena Gomez & Keleigh Teller

October 20 - Travis Kelce answers questions at the Chiefs press conference (x 3:50)

When asked about his appearance on SNL Travis replied (8:00)

"it was funny, obviously I didn't know what was going to go down and just decided to hit SNL last second and they asked if I wanted to end the skit that was about me and Taylor's take over of the NFL games which was hilarious, I loved every bit of it and I was laughing my tail off during the skit, to be honest I don't even remember saying anything..."

Travis was also asked what he recommended people wear to dress up like him as a halloween costume, he suggests a moustache, 87 chiefs jersey and a friendship bracelet. (8:44)

Travis reveals

"I had [a moustache] when I first met Taylor"

US Weekly article (x) a source says about Travis and Taylor

“They’re really happy. They’re not saying they’re in love yet. But it’s obvious to her friends they’re heading in that direction,” noting that their loved ones see Swift, 33, and Kelce’s strong connection when they are together. “Friends think they’re in love.”

“He’s going to see her when she’s back on tour. That’s already planned. And when she gets a break, she’ll see him,” the source adds. “It’s going so well because it’s easy and nothing is complicated.”

“Taylor is really happy and excited about Travis. She’s at the relationship stage where she looks forward to seeing him, getting calls from him, spending time with him,” the source continues. “She has butterflies in her stomach and she hasn’t had that in a while. She feels safe and comfortable around him physically and emotionally.”

The insider notes that Kelce has surprised Swift with how “in tune” he is with her needs. The athlete has also been “a gentleman” toward Swift since he revealed in July his attempt to make a move on Swift while attending her Eras tour concert. “Travis is someone who is so different for her. With him it’s easy. She doesn’t have to worry about anything,”

He has his own career and money. So he’s not with her for the wrong reasons. He has his own successful career and understands the demands,” the insider concludes. “There’s no drama and they’re happy. He’ll visit, she’ll visit. It’s working for them.”

October 22 - Chiefs v Chargers, Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City. Taylor flies into KC to cheer on Travis and the Chiefs as they take on the Chargers at Arrowhead Stadium.

Taylor is photographed with Bernie Kosar at Travis home pregame (x).

Taylor appears to have had a brilliant time supporting Travis at the Sunday afternoon game joining Brittany Mahomes and others. The Chiefs defeated the LA Chargers 31- 17 with Travis scoring a touch down to cement the win. Taylor wore a "87" friendship bracelet in support of Travis.

Chiefs coach Andy Reid addresses the press commenting on the Chiefs win (x 2:16)

"Kelce keeps getting better with time, Taylor can stay around all she wants"

Taylor and Travis leave Arrowhead Stadium together in Travis' Rolls Royce (x)

tay and trav in the getaway cart

Taylor and Travis celebrate the win at Travis KC home photographed with Chiefs teammate Mecole Hardman Jr. and Chariah Gordon (x)

Taylor changed shoes to be part of a group of teammates, WAGs and close friends of the KC Chiefs wearing custom red nikes. It's so nice to see Taylor be included in this way! (via @taylorswiftstyle and Aric Jones on instagram)

The Messenger reports (x)

" [Travis and Taylor] are both smitten and can't keep their hands off one another when they are together," the source said. "They aren't scared to be affectionate in public."

October 23 - Cruel Summer hits No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100! Cruel Summer hits this milestone 5 years after it was released from the 2019 Lover album. Taylor and Jack Antonoff (who helped produce the song and long time friend) celebrate with a post (x). Notice they are in a recording studio in LA (last week) and are being way too cryptic holding up 11 fingers... TS 11 anyone?

People speak with Ed Kelce, Travis' dad (x)

Ed tells PEOPLE that the “Karma” singer is “a very, very sweet, very charming, down-to-earth young woman."

His initial impression that Swift is “very genuine" was proven right upon his first meeting with the singer.

“I’ll tell you something very special that I noticed about Taylor the first time I met her,” Ed shares. “We're sitting in the suite, she gets up and in the front room, she gets up to go get a drink or something and she starts picking up empty bottles, cans, plates that are scattered around. Because in the suites everybody gets stuff and you empty it down wherever you can.” Ed continues, “And I'm just thinking, I don't think she got the diva memo. She didn't get the spoiled musician. She doesn't know how to pull that off. And that really to me said a whole lot.”

Travis and Taylor are papped hand in hand heading out for dinner Monday evening at Piropos, an Argentine Steak House. Travis is seen opening the car door for Taylor. (x)

Victor Oladipo believes Taylor Swift makes Travis Kelce better (x)

October 25 - Ed Kelce speaks with ET (x)

"I think they are two very, very driven professional individuals," he says. "I think they're very supportive of each other, which is key. This is a rough time for either one of them to have a relationship. She's in the middle of this ginormous tour, he's knee deep [in the NFL season]. At least he takes his just as serious as she takes hers as far as commitment to their craft."

Ed believes that Taylor's pre-concert ritual of preserving her voice -- which Travis claims is the reason he was unable to present her with a friendship bracelet -- shows how dedicated and understanding she is when it comes to her career. 

"I think she's very committed to that," he says of the "Anti-Hero" songstress. "And I think Travis supports that. And I think she realises how committed Travis is to sleep, 10 hours a day, when your body is going through this kind of thing. So I think they're both very supportive."

And should the Chiefs make it to the Super Bowl...

"Without a doubt," he says about saving a seat for Tay. "She'll be in the middle of the Eras Tour so..."

And if Ed himself should ever make it to the Eras Tour, he'll be singing "You Belong With Me," as he revealed that it's his favorite song of hers.

"Being genuine with your feelings," he tells ET of the dating advice he gave Travis and Jason. "Being respectful of a woman, and that's taught from a young age. Be yourself, be honest with someone's emotions. But these are all things that they've understood growing up just being the norm."

Episode 60 of New Heights airs, part of the episode title is "Travis Reacts to “Swift Stats"" (x 56:20)

In response to whether National Tight End day is a real holiday, Jason tweets

October 26 - Taylor is seen out in NYC. She is at Bradley Cooper's apartment with Shawn Levy, Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman. That night, Taylor goes out for dinner with Alana and Danielle Haim at Holiday Bar, NYC (x)

Patrick Mahomes says that he wants to have a secret handshake with Travis after his wife Brittany and Taylor went viral for theirs (x)

“I need to talk to Travis, because me and Travis don’t even have a handshake yet,” Patrick, 28 said during a radio interview with Kansas City’s KCSP (610 AM) on Thursday, October 26. “So I mean, they’re ahead of the game on us. So we’re gonna have to get on the whiteboard, and we’re gonna figure out a handshake so that we can try to one up theirs.”

Go to previous update -> October 2023 Part 1

Go to next update -> October 2023 Part 3

Return to timeline

#taylor and travis #taylor swift #travis kelce #87 and 89 #taylor swift and travis kelce #traylor #killatrav #seemingly ranch #timeline #T&T #tayvis

[tippytheclown1]

Runemagick Sweden Band photos and their 1998 debut LP "The Supreme Force of Eternity"

A swedish death/doom band with a very thick guitar tone that manages to create crushing, dissonant riffs. Definitely one of the better Swedish bands.

#runemagick #death metal #osdm #swedish death metal #death doom metal #doom metal #tippytheclown

[thebowerypresents]

MXMTOON Comes Home to End Tour with Sold-Out Show in Brooklyn

MXTMTOON – Roulette – December 15, 2023

A native of Oakland, Calif., transplanted to Brooklyn, Maia (who keeps her surname private) is best known by the moniker MXMTOON (pronounced: em-ex-em-toon). The singer-songwriter earned online recognition when she began uploading songs filled with ukulele compositions and earnest lyrics to her YouTube channel a decade ago. After releasing her second full-length album, Rising, last year, Maia returns to the original bedroom recordings of her debut EP, Plum Blossom, on her current tour, working up reimagined takes of the 2018 material. She has a history of releasing multiple renditions of her music, offering studio-produced and stripped-down, acoustic versions of her first LP, Masquerade. On Friday, MXMTOON concluded her tour for Plum Blossom (Revisited) with a sold-out homecoming at Brooklyn’s Roulette.  Despite admitted nerves, Maia happily took the stage to open with the fitting lyrics “I walked into the room” for “Cliché.” With her performing acoustic, everyone in the room was singing along from the jump and continued throughout the show. The East Coast transplant shared that revisiting her past material was quite the welcomed reflection on the teenager she was then to the 23-year-old she is now. “The Idea of You” expressed the overwhelming build of a high school crush, but since its writing, the more-confident-with-age singer admitted that her younger self was overdramatic. MXMTOON’s natural ability to be vulnerable translates to her fans not only knowing all the background vocal queues for her songs but also various vlog references like a Josh Hutcherson “Whistle” edit and the “yipppeee” calls. As an outsider to the fandom, I was repeatedly astonished by her followers’ antics, especially on “Stuck” when about a third of the people in the room lifted signs that had Maia happily in tears. The song is an expression of feeling in between identities, which she shares being mixed-race and bisexual. Her musing deeply connected the collective space and culminated with a boisterous cover of Vance Joy’s “Riptide.” —Sharlene Chiu | @Shar0ck

#Bowery Presents #Brooklyn #Josh Hutcherson #Live Music #Maia #Masquerade #Music #MXMTOON #New York City #Plum Blossom #Plum Blossom (Revisited) #Review #Rising #Roulette #Sharlene Chiu #Vance Joy

[doomedandstoned]

Irish Sludgers COROZA Unleash “Scorched Earth”

~Doomed & Stoned~

By Billy Goate

Some years back, we introduced you to progressive sludge foursome COROZA from Cork, Ireland. Tom Hanno wrote an excellent review of their debut LP, 'Challiceburner' (2019), in which he lauded the band for their "heavy, heavy riffing and huge tone." The band also contributed a track to our compilation Doomed & Stoned in Ireland before the pandemic. In the years since, Coroza has earned a reputation as a firebrand live act.

Today, Doomed & Stoned brings you brand new material from Coroza with the single "Scorched Earth," an apocalyptic number from their upcoming second full-length 'As Within' (2024). Here mysterious monastic singing meets deranged howls and mighty roars. Riffs are nothing short of crushing, the rhythm section a windstorm. You'll certainly want to listen with a good pair of speakers or headphones for full effect.

The nine-minute monolith seems to me like the ebb and flow of crashing tidal waves in the Celtic Sea. There is something both beautiful and chaotic afoot, and one can picture a great asteroid of impending doom not far from view. Perhaps we will self-destruct beforehand in our own man-made funeralopolis. Let Coroza take you for a ride to the End of Days.

Coroza's As Within releases May 20th on vinyl, CD, cassette, and digital formats via Cursed Monk Records (pre-order here). Stick it on a playlist with Yob, Ahab, and Zirakzigil.

Give ear...

SOME BUZZ

Coroza was formed in Cork, Ireland in mid-2015 and over the course of two years honed their sound into a devastatingly heavy form, which encompasses heavy blues, metal, sludge, doom and stoner elements, leading to the release of their well-received self-titled demo in 2017.

Extensive gigging cemented them into the local scene and soon Coroza began appearing on bills around Ireland, landing support slots to international touring bands such as Conan, Bolzer and Tusker. 2019 saw the release of their debut album Chaliceburner which was met with positive reviews.

Coroza's second album titled 'As Within' (2024) was recorded and mixed by renowned producer Aidan Cunningham and mastered by Magnus Lindberg (Cult of Luna).

Coroza are:   • Ciarán Coghlan (guitar/vox)   • Jack O’Neill (lead guitar/vox)   • Ollie Cunningham (drums)   • Tomás O’Brien (bass)

Follow The Band

Get Their Music

#D&S Debuts #Coroza #Cork #Ireland #progressive metal #sludge #doom metal #Cursed Monk Records #D&S Reviews #Doomed and Stoned

[carlosjijonwrites]

Only God Was Above Us Review

Alternative rock is almost synonymous with loud distortion. It’s a classic staple of the genre that allows bands to bring energy and emotion to their recordings. And although Vampire Weekend has been one of the more successful indie bands of the last few decades, they have always refrained from this practice. Since their debut in 2008, their electric guitars have sported clean tones and their sound has always been more bright than anything else. But that all changes in Only God Was Above Us, the group's latest release. In their fifth full-length LP, the band fills their songs with heavily distorted guitars and noisy synths. And interestingly, what they add to the music is not fierce emotion, but an atmosphere of chaos. 

The album’s second track, “Classical,” is crowded with all sorts of loud, dissonant sounds. Even the acoustic guitar sounds dirty, somehow. Still, it never comes off as a heavy rock song. Instead, the loud elements create an air of confusion and eeriness. The most surprising part is that this is all paired up with tender melodies and delicate piano sounds. It results in a sense of tumultuous beauty that’s present in the whole record. 

It’s a sound that fits well with the themes of the album, which are unapologetically bleak. When it was released, the band’s frontman Ezra Koenig shared a message in which he said the record was “kinda heavy” and it’s easy to understand what he meant. Vampire Weekend has tackled dark themes before, but Only God Was Above Us goes to much darker places. Just look at the lyrics of “The Surfer,” which casually mention “broke bodybuilders crushed beneath the weight” and “inept long-distance runners losing every race.” “Classical” gets into how, with time, even the most horrible acts can become normalized and even glorified. “How the cruel with time becomes classical,” sings Koenig before jumping into an apocalypse-themed chorus section.

And it all concludes with “Hope,” the ambitious, folk-inspired, 8-minute closing track. In it, the band explores tragedies of all sorts, going from corrupt justice systems and naive self-deception to backpacks falling onto the train tracks and everything in between. “The phoenix burned but did not rise”/ “The righteous rage was foolish pride.” And what’s the song’s response to all this dysfunction? Resignation. The lyrics suggest that the world is unfixable and that “the enemy is invincible,” so the answer is to just learn to let go. The lyrics make this point with unmissable clarity. Every verse ends with the words “I hope you let it go” and the chorus is a constant repetition of that same line.

It’s more than “kinda heavy,” I would say, but it’s accompanied by an unrelenting energy and a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor that prevents it from ever becoming depressing. The album’s third track, “Capricorn,” is definitely sad, but it also contains an air of playful self-deprecation that makes it fun and exciting. In the second verse, the singer complains about being “alone and wounded” only to immediately add “but in my prime.” My favorite song on the record, “Pravda,” uses dark humor in a similar way. The lyrics describe a person with an almost comically desperate desire to go away. To make this clear, every verse ends with the phrase “I’m leaving at the rising of the Moon,” even when it doesn’t really make sense. Like in the final section, the narrator reminisces about a job they once had selling ties at Penn Station only to cut themselves off midway and remind us that they, in fact, are leaving at the rising of the Moon. 

I’ve talked about the noisy synths for a while now, but that is just one element in an album that’s honestly chock-full of creativity and fun. The song “Mary Boone” mixes angelical choirs with upbeat hip hop rhythms and “Connect” features one of the craziest, most psychedelic piano sections I’ve ever heard in a pop song. And even with its dark lyrics about false prophets and matadors being killed by raging bulls, the main piano riff in “Hope” is just so catchy.

Can’t help but get the feeling that Vampire Weekend is alienating their audience somewhat with their incessant experimentation. The weird-sounding electric guitars and deafening synths will surely turn many people off. It almost feels like dissonance-core, to be honest, and I can picture more than one person thinking that “Capricorn” would have worked better without all the dinosaur sounds in the mix. Not to mention the hyper-local New York references about “Grant’s tomb” and commuting from New Jersey might come off as obnoxious to some. I have always admired how the band has maintained their bold artistic approach even though it’s constantly being met with skepticism by mass audiences and hardcore fans alike. Just gotta let it go, I guess.

#vampire weekend #only god was above us #ogwau #music

[thisworldisablackhole]

This week in listening, 02/09/24

I honestly just listened to a fuck ton of Silverstein and Thrice this past week, so in an effort to not repeat the same bands on these posts, I'm only including 6 releases instead of 10.

Chelsea Wolfe's new album dropped today (friday) and by goly it's my favourite thing she's done since Unknown Rooms in 2012. To be fair, I haven't given many of her other albums a fair shot (heavy doom-folk wasn't really my cup of tea), but after listening to this I think I owe it to myself to do a full run through her discography. The gothic industrial instrumentals are both subdued and engaging, and when combined with Chelsea's gorgeous voice it comes together to sound somewhat like a soundtrack to unearthing the catacombs of a lost civilization in a decayed concrete jungle.

Like Moths To Flames has been one of my favourite metalcore bands since I re-discovered them a few years ago. They've been a super solid band ever since their first EP in 2010 and have only grown stronger over the years. It's actually quite rare for a metalcore band from the 2010's to still be on top of their game and improving after 6 LP's. One of my favourite things about this band, and why I believe they've managed to be so consistent over the years, is that they aren't afraid to wane and wax in their evolution without losing sight of their DNA. Over their career they have released albums that have gone back and forth from heavy hardcore to a more hook centric Breaking Benjamin-esque alt metal sound, but it's always been good and it's always sounded like the same band. Now with these new singles (and the two standalone singles they dropped in 2023) they are stripping way back on the catchy choruses to pour their focus into just creating memorable and heavy as fuck riffs. This is some of their most crushing and technical material to date and I can not wait for the full length to drop later this year.

Wolves & Machines are a super underrated alternative rock/post hardcore band in the vein of Brand New and Thrice. I first listened to this band back in 2010 when they released their debut record Ailments. I really loved that record and have super fond memories listening to it, but those memories were only triggered recently when I stumbled upon them again while falling down a rabbit hole of "fans also like" sections on spotify. I completely forgot they existed until I saw their name and then all those memories came flooding back to me. I swiftly hit play on Ailments and let the nostalgia bathe me in it's afterglow. The absolute best part of rediscovering this band though was finding out that they never stopped putting out really solid albums. I have since fallen absolutely head over heels with their 2014 record Since Before Our Time. For fucks sake, just hit play and you'll see why.

Ghost Atlas is the side project of progressive metalcore outfit ERRA's guitarist and clean vocalist Jesse Cash. Ghost Atlas' 2017 album All Is In Sync... was very much rooted in post hardcore ala HRVRD, Saosin and Circa Survive. With this new album he has diverted course a bit into much softer pop rock territory. He didn't completely ditch the post hardcore edge, but the whole album is just a lot more mellow and blissed out than his previous work. Some fans have felt very divided by this shift in sound, but I love it. This record is just pure comfort. I think the album art does a perfect job at capturing the vibe: a morning cup o' joe on your balcony with a cat on your lap, and Jesse's beautiful voice serenading you into a deep state on contentedness. This is likely going to end up on my year end list.

I've been a "big fan" of Burial ever since his groundbreaking 2007 LP Untrue. I put "big fan" in parenthesis because despite absolutely loving some of his earlier music to death, I am not die hard enough to be keeping up with every two song single or weird ambient EP he has released over the years. Someone wrote online that this new single was his "best work since Rival Dealer", and that was enough to make me don my Burial fan cap again and dive in. Boy was I not disappointed. These two tracks are expansive at approx. 13 minutes each, but they do not feel tiring or strung out at all. They represent everything I love about Burial; that sweet sweet crackling atmosphere, nimble footed drum patterns and haunting vocal samples that are effective in their sparsity, injecting just the perfect amount of melody into the hazy rhythms. Dreamfear slowly disintegrates and becomes more aggressive over it's run time until the sample repeating "BACK FROM THE DEAD, FUCKED UP IN THE HEAD" hits us in the head over and over, inducing psychosis panic in the listener. It's glorious.

I've been getting back into more progressive rock and metal recently. I blame TesseracT and Aviations for that, as they both put out absolute home run records last year that reawakened the bound and gagged Dream Theater fan inside me. I checked this album on a whim after reading a review about it that described it as "bright and uplifting" metal, and I was immediately captivated by it. If there's one thing I absolutely adore in music, it's a contradiction. Taking two things that people usually do not associate with each other (uplifting and metal) and engaging them in holy matrimony. Artificial Language have a more classical sound than Aviations, but the bright chords, djenty riffs and piano leads are all still in stock. I'd say it's the perfect counterpart to 2023's Luminaria and I'm keen to give it more listens over the coming weeks.

#chelsea wolfe #like moths to flames #wolves & machines #ghost atlas #artificial language #post hardcore #alternative rock #dubstep #progressive metal #metalcore #thrice #ERRA #music

[goodbysunball]

In the summer dust

Live from June 2023, already, and still steadily accumulating plastic to shield me from the sun. Here are four more things you can listen to instead of Elon Musk and four more things you can buy instead of groceries. Crank 'em 'til that stomach rumble is drowned out.

BIG|BRAVE, nature morte LP (Thrill Jockey)

Their lineup now solidified over the course of the past few records, BIG|BRAVE picks up right where they left off on 2021's underrated Vital with nature morte. The record snaps open with Robin Wattie's vocals, and it's a harbinger of things to come: she's solidly up front flexing her vocal range, seemingly more confident and in control than ever. While still glacial and capable of whittling rock to dust, nature morte feels more accessible, in part due to Wattie's performance, but the guitars are more airy, allowing the soft, bright colors of the cover to bleed into the performance. There's an actual groove at the midpoint of "carvers, farriers and knaves," and my favorite track, "the one who bornes a weary load," begins with the post-rock atmosphere by way of '00s screamo. Of course, the band's bread and butter is still this absolutely crushing, cavernous one- or two-chord riff augmented by feedback, crashing drums and Wattie's vocals elevating to a full-on roar; they just utilize it more sparingly. What else has changed over the last two albums is how the band approaches the build-up to these climaxes, and how they can sound as disciplined as they do unpredictable. On "the fable of subjugation," for example, the band leads you face-first into a cold metal wall after the relatively calm textural intro, an un-subtle reminder to stay focused. When the loud part kicks in on "a parable of trusting," it almost sounds like vintage BIG|BRAVE until the guitar chords start to meander and sway, a simple and unbearably powerful show of restraint amidst the onslaught. This is a room-flattening/room-silencing record, the quiet parts captivating and the loud parts leaving craters behind when they strike. But in other ways, this feels like the band becoming more comfortable and confident expressing through texture and mood. To me, the trajectory of BIG|BRAVE feels much like Thou's over their first few years (from Tyrant to Summit, for instance), in that the two groups remained as heavy as ever while becoming more interested in creating an atmosphere, and not just churning endlessly in the sludge-y murk. I'm not big on where Thou went with their sound in recent years, and it could be that BIG|BRAVE is heading down a similar path; but for now, I'll enjoy nature morte and the sound of a band at the peak of their powers.

Disintegration, Time Moves For Me 12" (Feel It)

Fantastic debut from this new Cleveland trio, featuring the inimitable Haley Himiko from Pleasure Leftists, as well as Noah Anthony (Profligate), and Christopher Brown from Cloud Nothings. Disintegration operates in this darkwave/almost-EBM space, and it's solid ground for Himiko to sway and prowl over. The title track has her absolutely going off over an arpeggiated beat, and the acrobatics she pulls out on the chorus hit home every time. The slower tempo of "Carry With You" is another showcase for her vocal range; the combination of the heavy backbeat's gravity and the chopped treated vocals sounds like the track's being pulled under by its own weight. The record closes with "Make a Wish," which sounds like it could've almost been on the last Pleasure Leftists album, Himiko's vocals soaring over the airy, slicing backing track. The four tracks here are over too fast, an almost cruel tease; even "Hit the Face," the only track not to feature Himiko's vocals, connects on some animal level and gets the knees pumping and neck twisting, the coda not nearly long enough. Highest recommendation; please invite me to any party that's gonna be blasting tracks from this 12".

Glittering Insects, s/t LP (Mind Meld)

Total Punk sub-label Mind Meld is back with a vengeance this year, releasing a new Lavender Flu 12" and this debut Glittering Insects LP. The band features vets from Atlanta's underground: Greg King, Ryan Bell and Josh Feigert, who have recording solo and in bands like GG King, Uniform, Predator, etc. Can't say I'm all that familiar with any of their previous output, though it's been in my periphery for years. In any case, none of that prepared me for how powerful the meeting of the minds would be on Glittering Insects. This is very scuzzy, satisfying Am Rep or Dino Jr.-style rock with flecks of black metal ("Kratom Portal," "Calcified Time") and plenty of noise obscuring the vocals and the ground. The first five tracks, from the caustic noise of "Nuclear Rivers" to the tremolo-picking overlaying creaky keyboards on "Labyrinth Funnel," set the stage for what's to come, which is basically a survey of guitar rock from the past 30 years or so. The second track, "Silent Dream," is my favorite song of the year so far. The main riff gets stuck in my head for days at a time, and the slyly catchy vocal melody just barely pokes out amidst the din. Elsewhere, the band churns out menacing noise rock on "Peatgurgling"; attempts a Rudimentary Peni impression on "Obscure World After Death"; and reaches guitar worship heights currently only achievable by Cheater Slicks on the instrumental "Glittering Insects." My very minor quibble would be that "Dream Journal 12/8/21" doesn't quite fit and kicks me out of the dusty, thrilling orbit the rest of the record pulls me into, seeming much less complete than the rest of the album's tracks. It's just about the shortest track, and had I not listened to Glittering Insects many times over already, I probably wouldn't think to mention it. No matter - this is some real deal, clenched teeth exhilaration, a tour de force with the chops, energy and just the right amount of reverence to match its ambition.

HUH, You Don't Need Magic LP (An'archives)

An'archives has been busy the past few years, selecting the Japanese sub-underground sounds that pass muster and bringing them to the masses in beautiful editions. HUH is yet another new-to-me outfit, though apparently they've been around since 2007. The duo of Kyosuke Terada and Takuma Mori is based around guitar and drums, it sounds like, but there's a healthy dollop of electronics (as there must be) and warped, free vocalizations. If that sounds like Lightning Bolt to you, you're in the ballpark, but the band more often goes for low density: stretching out slow, twisted grooves ("Greenish Fog In You") or restrained relative calm recorded by haunted equipment ("Lousy Smirky," which kinda sounds like it could've fit on Sharpen Your Teeth). There are a couple freak-outs that show HUH paying fealty to their Rhode Island forebears, of course - go no further than the raucous "Spilled Beer" for your fix. What's more interesting is that there is a palpable joy on You Don't Need Magic; one that, to me, rarely comes across on most guitar-drum duo records. They emphasize exuberance over aggression, appear to harness the complete freedom from expectation, and possess the wordless communication between two musicians operating on a plane above most. You Don't Need Magic impresses on a number of levels, and if the way "Bitter Summer" rips apart at the halfway point to close out the album doesn't have you flipping the record over for more - you may need magic.

#Big Brave #HUH #An'archives #Disintegration #Feel It Records #Glittering Insects #Thrill Jockey #Mind Meld

[lovejustforaday]

Shoegaze Classics - The Comforts of Madness

The Comforts of Madness - Pale Saints (1990)

Main Genres - Shoegaze, Indie Pop, Dream Pop

A decent sampling of: Post-Punk, Jangle Pop, Neo-Psychedelia, Noise Pop

I've already discussed a lot of the bands that either formed during the second half of the first wave of shoegaze, and/or whose most noteworthy albums happened around that time (roughly 1992-1996).

So today I will be looking at one of the true OG shoegaze bands. These guys really don't get enough of the credit that they deserve for being one of the earliest bands to make the blueprint for that signature swirling world of guitars that would come to be known as shoegaze. Let's explore the amorous imagination of Pale Saints and their debut LP.

The Band

Yes, Pale Saints were one of the first true shoegaze bands, forming in Leeds in 1987 and having already begun making music in the early framework of the subgenre's sound as early as 1988, when they released their first EP of demos.

The main lineup of Pale Saints consisted of Ian Masters, the band's bassist and lead vocalist with his gentle, paper-thin high tenor voice, Graeme Naysmith who performed the band's signature gleaming lead guitar, and Chris Cooper on drums (oddly, that's the third "Chris" drummer for a band in this series so far).

There was also Meriel Barham on guitar and vocals, who joined shortly after the debut LP that I will be reviewing shortly. Fun fact: I learned while researching this that she was very briefly the lead vocalist for Lush in its early days, unimaginable as it might be to consider Lush as a band without the chemistry of Miki on lead and Emma doing the harmonies.

As one of the earliest shoegazing bands, you can hear a lot of influence in the music of Pale Saints from the subgenres of indie music that birthed the original scene, particularly on their debut record. There is a lot of jangly indie pop in their sound, hence more upbeat like their contemporaries Lush, as well as a lot of post-punk influence, especially in the drums.

But a big part of what set Pale Saints apart from other first wave bands was the general coziness of their sound. A lot of their melodies and timbres are personally reminiscent to me of small town life, early adolescent crushes, a cup of tea at your grandparents house, and just being a teenager watching clouds go by while sitting in the bleachers on your afternoon free period.

While other bands like Slowdive and Flying Saucer Attack were spacing out into the abyss, capturing intense feelings of longing, melancholy, and isolation, I would describe Pale Saints as having a very down-to-earth sound. And sometimes, though not always, that's all I want in my shoegaze. Just give me a nice melody and a hit of that sweet, sweet guitar textural euphoria.

I feel like Pale Saints legacy can be heard in a lot of 2010s shoegaze-adjacent bands like DIIV and Wild Nothing. More of the feel-good vibes, with a poppy mix of everything indie from the 80s and early 90s.

Pale Saints got their start by releasing a few EPs (I know, shocking) before dropping their debut record, They signed to the 4AD label along with many other dream pop and early shoegaze bands. Similar story in general to a lot of other bands that I've already covered, so I won't go into excruciating detail. Let's just get to the album.

The Record

The Comforts of Madness is a romantic record, in every sense of the word. Its sonic world is idyllic and full of soft-spoken love, expressed through sharp guitars playing tender melodies and creating clouds of dreamy pinks and baby blues. This is a record for you to just kick back and allow your mind to set sail into sweet bliss.

The production and mastering was handled by a small team including Gil Norton, Al Clay, Tim Davis, and John Fryer. Their work on this record is a lot 'airier' than most first wave shoegaze records. This gives the music a lot of of breathing room, which makes the vocals and wall of guitars A little more echo-y. I'm reminded a lot of the production and mastering on the Cocteau Twins' proto-dream pop sophomore record Head Over Heels.

The opening 2 tracks here are pretty straightforward post-punk. Actually, the whole side A is almost as much post-punk and jangle pop as it could be described as dream pop or shoegaze, whereas side B is much more confidently a traditional shoegaze record.

The album's first real taste of shoegaze comes in the form of "Sea of Sound", a redux of a song from the band's demo EP .

I will say this now: as a massive fan of Slowdive, I must acknowledge that this song was probably a huge influence on their early sound. I can't think of anything more proto-Slowdive than this song actually. The gradual guitar waves mixed with crashing, reverberated cymbals over the mid-slow tempo drums of this song can be heard all across Slowdive's first 3 EPs.

Sure, its a bit less sonically busy, and the guitar timbres are pretty different between a song like this and, say, "Morningrise", but I think its pretty safe to say that one way or another this track was formative to Slowdive. It's also, incidentally, a beautiful song, and Ian Masters has a perfect lullaby voice for this kind of track. Important piece of shoegazing history.

"Little Hammer" is a bit of a peculiar inclusion; an acoustic, waltzing indie pop ballad with sonic imagery that evokes a mysterious wandering caravan. Very soothing, nevertheless.

"A Deep Sleep For Steven" is warm and fuzzy shoegaze timbres injected directly to the veins, unlocking some kind of uncharted remote paradise island deep within the recesses of the listener's mind.

This is followed by "Language of Flowers", a jangly dream pop world of rainbows that would fit nicely in the catalogue of a C86 twee band like The Field Mice.

The band covers 4AD label mate Kendra Smith on "Fell From The Sun", taking the original's gently swaying, hypnotic slowcore psychedelia and turning it into a bouncy, earth-shaking kaleidoscope with beat changes and and an ending with a heavenly chorus of Ian's vocals layered a dozen times.

This bleeds into "Sight of You", the definitive best song on the record. This shoegaze pop gem features adorably woeful, melodramatic teenage love, and a series of flashbang-level brightened guitar riffs, echoing hundreds of times in a hall of auditory stained glass, all held together by an absolutely killer bassline. It's almost impossible not to smile from ear to ear while listening to this wondrously golden track. Sheer fucking pop excellence from start to finish.

Most of the tracks I've cared to mention are on the side B. Yes, I'd call it a back-loaded record, since most of the sugary shoegaze goodness happens on the back end, but this is still more than good enough to be one of the definitive standout records of first wave shoegaze. The Comforts of Madness is a true classic in my opinion.

What Came After That?

As I previously mentioned, Meriel joined the band shortly after the first record, and became an essential part of the bands sound from then on.

After that, Pale Saints only released two more records before the project eventually fell through.

The first of those records is 1992's In Ribbons, a more toned down and psychedelic record, which was a little more coherent with the lowkey atmosphere that would come to dominate the 'scene that celebrates itself' in the 90s. A lot of fans of the band hold the sophomore record in higher regard than the debut, but personally I see it as a noticeable step down in terms of songwriting from the gorgeous melodies that made The Comforts of Madness so memorable.

Some time after the second record, Ian departed from his own band after experiencing burnout with Pale Saints. This left Meriel to become the new face of the band for their last record Slow Buildings in 1994, an album of mostly mid-tempo dream pop songs that seems to divide the fanbase. I have not listened to it in full, but it definitely sounds like a different band to me.

Pale Saints disbanded a couple years later, with Meriel Barham's departure leaving the band with no lead vocalist. Meanwhile, Ian Masters had moved on to several other projects. The dude also moved to Japan in the 2000s, so there's that little tidbit.

Even though Pale Saints disbanded and has stopped putting out music for decades now, they are still one of the standout shoegaze bands to me, and one of the most important bands of that scene that directly and inadvertently influenced many others. You should definitely check them out if you haven't already.

9/10

Highlights: "Sight of You", "Sea of Sound", "A Deep Sleep for Steven", "Fell from the Sun", "Little Hammer", "Language of Flowers"

#album review #music review #list #indie rock #dream pop #shoegaze #indie pop #90s #Ian Masters #Chris Cooper #Graeme Naysmith #shoegaze classics #1990 #The Comforts of Madness #Pale Saints #Meriel Barham

[screamingforyears]

IN A MINUTE: // A POST_PUNK_ISH EXPRESS…

“ANGEL OF DEATH” is the latest single from @midimemory’s forthcoming LP titled ‘Far Out And Gone’ (1/11/24 @bornlosersrecords) & it finds the Florida-based project bringing the jumped-up-goods across a 2:48 clip of sweetly surging & bouncily jangled NüWave. “YARBLES” is the lead track on @thepinkfrosts freshly released EP titled ‘Unremarkable Product’ & it finds the Wellington-based unit creating “contemporary music for troubled times” across 4 1/2 mins of dourly droll, tastefully terse & classically leaning PostPunk. “FALL FOR YOU” is the lead track on @secretattractionmusic freshly released LP titled ‘LP3’ (@stratford_ct @theefuneralparty) & it finds the Phoenix-based duo bringing the swooned goods across 3 1/2 mins of tenderly lit, cosmically crushed & synth_waving GothPop. @spiritualcramptv are here w/ “HERBERTS ON HOLIDAY,” the second single from their forthcoming & long-awaited debut self-titled LP (11/3 @bluegrapemusic) & it finds the San Francisco-based outfit, if I’m being honest, bringing some legit ass sincerity across a 2:24 clip of post_punking & indie_leaning AltRock.

//

TRACKS STREAMING BELOW...

#music #screamingforyears #songs #postpunk #indie #rock #goth #indierock #alternative #aesthetic

[dustedmagazine]

Slept Ons: 2022

Sleeping on a Shovel Dance Collective sounds uncomfortable. 

Every year about this time, soon after filing our definitive, absolutely comprehensive best of the year lists, we writers discover that we missed one...or two...or 12. It’s not our fault. We listen to a lot of music.  But we can’t listen to all of it, and often we find albums that we love after the fact, often on the best of lists of our friends and contemporaries.  Every year, we try to remedy this problem with a list of slepts ons, the best albums that we should have been paying attention to, but weren’t.  We hope you’ll find something you missed as well.  Writers this time include Ian Mathers, Jonathan Shaw, Patrick Masterson, Jennifer Kelly, Andrew Forell, Chris Liberato, Bryon Hayes, Bill Meyer, Christian Carey and Justin Cober-Lake.  

Apparitions — Eyes Like Predatory Wealth (The Garrote)

Eyes Like Predatory Wealth by Apparitions

It does not matter how frantically I try and keep listening to things as year-end deadlines approach, there are always things not just missed but barely missed. I think it was a little after I turned my Dusted year-end piece in that I finally saw my friend Erik’s really good 2022 roundup, which includes among other records I hadn’t even heard of (and a few records I did already love) including this debut from the trio of Andrew Dugas (guitar), Igor Imbu (modular synth) and Grant Martin (drums). As soon as I read “If you like the idea of indeterminant collisions of drone metal guitar, free jazz drumming and modular synthesis this is a must hear” I suspected this was going to be one of the ones I regretted not having heard of earlier, and sure enough… On Eyes Like Predatory Wealth the trio, working in three separate cities, set out to make their parts for the three tracks here (the first 10 minutes long, the second 20 minutes, the last 30 minutes) without hearing the others’ parts (although conversation, conceptualizing and a shared framework was established). You wouldn’t necessarily guess at that level of remove from the results; instead, it’s sometimes almost scarily cohesive.

Ian Mathers

 Ashenspire — Hostile Architecture (Aural Music)

Hostile Architecture by Ashenspire

No excuse for my not tuning into this excellent record earlier. The debut LP from Glasgow-based Ashenspire had been blipping on and off my radar for any number of reasons: the subgenre identification with RABM, the collaborative presence of Otrebor from Botanist and the smart record title, for which the band offers “anti-homeless spikes” as an example of late capital’s utter contempt for the suffering people on its margins. The band is serious about that stuff. There are plenty of sharp intellectual interventions articulated by the record’s lyrics; I like these, from “The Law of Asbestos”: “Always three months to the gutter, never three months to the peak / Another day to grind your fingers for the simple right to eat / Always three months to the gutter, never three months to the crown / Another deep breath of asbestos in a godforsaken town.” Even more exciting is Ashenspire’s ability to create rollicking, hurtling metal intensities out of some decidedly highbrow instruments (saxophone, violin, prepared piano) and arrangements. Hostile Architecture bristles, slices and crushes much in the way of the brutal urban design elements named by its title. But the band also manages to imbue its songs with an inspiring leading edge. It’s a musical dialectic, enacting the incisive critique of the record’s ideas. Remarkable.

Jonathan Shaw

 Bluetile Lounge — Lowercase / Half Cut (Hobbledehoy)

Lowercase by Bluetile Lounge

Though Numero Group has been the de facto resource in recent years for slowcore reissue campaigns thanks to its work repackaging Codeine, Duster and Rex for a new generation, the label was beaten at its own game (for once) in 2022 by Adelaide’s Tom Majerczak and his Hobbledehoy Records’ repressing of a band who were hardly written about even this second time around. It figures: Bluetile Lounge were always going to have an uphill battle coming out of Perth on Australia’s far western coast away from the more visible scenes of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Though they managed Sub Pop distribution for 1995’s Lowercase and Steve Shelley put out 1998’s Half Cut on his own Smells Like imprint after the quartet opened for Sonic Youth on an Australian leg of their 1996 tour, the balkanized enthusiasm remained just that and they broke up after Half Cut’s release. There followed the fallow years before the surprise of new demo “Last Men” in April 2021 and the “Easterly” single this past June as a presage to these two reissues, both of which reiterate what a mostly unaware indie-rock world was missing. Recording live with overdubs to wonderfully pensive effect, one listen to “The Weight (and the Sea)” or “Ltd” should seal the deal for anyone interested in slowcore’s less heralded corners. You don’t have an excuse to miss out twice.

Patrick Masterson

 Eric Chenaux — Say Laura (Constellation)

Say Laura by Eric Chenaux

Eric Chenaux haunts the interstices between pop and jazz, minimalism and lush romance.  An experimenter by nature, but an exceptionally accessible one, he threads wandering spectral melodies through bare pulses of bass and kudzu growths of wah wah’d guitar.  The opener “Hello, How? And Hey” feels like a private reverie, nudging up to epiphany, then backing softly away.  “Say Laura” builds electronics into its glancing, elliptical contours but that’s a framing device.  Chenaux’s voice is almost too human, too vulnerable, too coolly cerebral.  This music slips out of your grasp, but gently. It shifts gears—and keys—effortlessly, and smooths over disruptions in rhythm, so that it seems to flow in an organic way that erases all of its interior difficulties.  “There They Were” balances between ease and complication, its warm drift of a vocal chorus all soulful pop, but knocked off kilter by an irregular scrawl of guitar.  I’ve been putting this one off since early 2022, but there was nothing to be afraid of after all.  

Jennifer Kelly

 Morgana — Contemporaneità (Low Ambition Records)

When Tuscan quartet Morgana released Contemporaneità in August, they made an immediate impression with a brand of cold wave influenced politically sophisticated post punk which on first listen sounds very much like Xmal Deutschland. After initially it filing away as well made but derivative, I found myself drawn back, and it’s become a favorite. The singer Bri proclaims loudly Debordian social critiques in Italian and French, Valeria enthusiastically bashes away at the drums, Ivan’s bass takes the melodic lead and guitarist Sola reels out lines straight from the McGeoch playbook. At 17 minutes, Morgana get in and out of songs with a minimum of fuss and a stylistic variety revealed with repeated listens. There are echoes of many of their influences but Morgana live by the words of “Provare Ancora” (Try Again): “Try fail/try again/try fail/fail better/Believe what we feel/act accordingly/persist, attack, build/perhaps win” A band to keep an ear out for and I’ll be fascinated to see where they go next.

Andrew Forell   

 The Orchids — Dreaming Kind (Skep Wax)

DREAMING KIND by The Orchids

“This boy is a mess,” The Orchids' soft-singing frontman James Hackett confesses on the single of the same name, a contender for 2022’s best pure pop song. From a lyrical standpoint at least, he certainly seems like one. In the first three songs alone on Dreaming Kind — the fourth album from the Sarah Records stalwarts since reuniting in the late aughts — Hackett swings between extremes: spitefully kissing someone off one minute, joyfully enamored with a lover the next, and then down on his knees begging for love. Musically, however, Dreaming Kind is about as even-keeled and elegant as indie pop gets. Elevated by longtime producer Ian Carmichael’s glistening touch, the band glides through the chorus of “This Boy Is a Mess” like a top-down sedan headed for the horizon. They slip into swooning, loungey electronica on “I Should Have Thought,” recalling Mark Eitzel circa The Invisible Man. And on “I Don’t Mean to Stare,” they float funkily along using voice sampling, programmed drums, even touches of vocoder. The dubbed-out dramatic pause on “Limitless #1 (Joy)” says it all: At this point, The Orchids could do this in their sleep. 

Chris Liberato

 Outliers — The Top Tent (Outlier Communications)

The Top Tent by Outliers

Outliers is the house band of the fledgling Outlier Communications label; both involve the husband-and-wife duo of Kevin Hainey and Sarah Tracy. Hainey’s roots reach deep into Toronto’s fecund and fetid noise-rock sub-underground: he was a founding member of Disguises and ran the Inyrdisk imprint, hand-making a daunting number of CD-Rs for 11 years before calling it quits in 2016. With this new venture, practicality tempers Hainey’s previously fierce DIY ethic. Most of the Outlier Communications releases are professionally duplicated. Sonically, Outliers situate themselves in an unlikely liminal zone, stretching between thick proto-industrial murk and buoyant Berlin School kosmische. Tracy and Hainey trace the formlessness of fluid matter with their sound-making gear, dappling their soundscapes with a naivete akin to that of R. Stevie Moore. The Top Tent is the most fully realized artifact in the Outliers canon, shaping the duo’s primordial ooze in fantastical ways. The pair are in symbiosis with their gear, coaxing weird and wonderful phantasms out of sheer electricity. Based on the arc that Tracy and Hainey have traced thus far, it’s exciting to imagine where they’ll take this project in 2023 and beyond.

Bryon Hayes

 Zabelle Panosian — I Am Servant of Your Voice: March 1917-June 1918 (Canary)

I Am Servant of Your Voice: March 1917 - June 1918 by Zabelle Panosian

Zabelle Panosian first came to my ears in 2011, when I heard her performance of “Groung” on the compilation To What Strange Place: The Music of the Ottoman-American Diaspora (1916-1929). Accompanied solely by a piano and a ghostly backdrop of 78 rpm noise, her soprano voice concentrated generations of inherited grief and the individual experience of exile into a performance so sublime that you don’t need to know a word of Armenian to feel its pain. I Am Servant Of Your Voice: March 1917-June 1918 collects her discography, which comprises just 21 takes, onto one CD. An accompanying 80-page book puts a life to the voice. Panosian was born near Istanbul in 1891, and moved to the US as a teen to marry an Armenian-American photographer. She was never a big star of the stage, but she wasn’t obscure, either. She was a real draw as a coloratura opera singer performing at Armenian aid events during the 1910s and early 1920s, and she performed on both sides of the Atlantic into the 1930s. The book also discusses the career of her daughter, who represented herself as Spanish and sustained a career as a dancer and entertainer into the 1950s. It’s this very American tale of necessarily elastic identity, as well as Panosian’s music, that make I Am Servant Of Your Voice a real treasure.

Bill Meyer

 Shovel Dance Collective— The Water is the Shovel of the Shore  (Memorials of Distinction and Double Dare)

I only learned about this right before the New Year and didn’t have a chance to listen until the first week of 2023. My immediate reaction: this music and the performances on the recording speaks to my soul and ancestry like few others. A collective of musicians from a variety of backgrounds joining together to sing English, Irish, Scottish ballads dating all the way back to the 1600s (and perhaps even earlier). Sometimes folk instruments, often of an esoteric variety, are used. Just as often the whole group sings medleys of ancient songs into the surf, accompanying gulls’ cries and the lapping of the waves. 

Christian Carey

 Suede — Autofiction (BMG)

With their ninth album, Suede don't radically rewrite their sound, but they lean into the most powerful elements of it. Autofiction relies more on the band's post-punk tendency rather than their glam expressions, and with a rawer production to match, the band's reached a new high. The big, aggressive sound doesn't sound like a return to adolescence (despite a track titled “15 Again”), as the group focuses on mature subject matter. The album opens with “She Still Leads Me On,” a track about the continuing influence of singer Brett Anderson's late mother. The Fall-like “Personality Disorder” considers the fleeting nature of life. These topics might not sound fit for anthemic concert singalongs, but the record closes with “Turn off Your Brain and Yell,” a cut that pretty much suggests the group's approach to the album. With Autofiction, Suede move into a new era, maintaining their core sensibilities. The writing remains sharp and focused even as the band lets loose, combining for an album as strong as any they've released over their 30 years together.

Justin Cober-Lake

#dusted magazine #slept ons #yearend 2022 #apparitions #ian mathers #ashenspire #jonathan shaw #bluetile lounge #patrick masterson #eric chenaux #jennifer kelly #morgana #andrew forell #the orchids #chris liberato #outliers #bryon hayes #zabelle panosian #bill meyer #shovel dance collective #christian carey #suede #justin cober-lake

[x--daughters-of-darkness--x]

OTEP Covers BILLIE EILISH's 'You Should See Me In A Crown'

It's been nearly five years since the release of OTEP's last full-length album, the crushing "Kult 45", and since then the world has gone to complete…well, let's just say it's become the kind of world that desperately needs the band led by singer, poet, illustrator, author and activist Otep Shamaya. Not only is Shamaya a revered musical figure, known for her intrepid blending of metal genres and hip-hop, as exemplified on her notorious 2002 debut album "Sevas Tra", but she's also amassed an enormous following based on her fearless performances and confrontational, spiritually tinged lyrics. It's that combination of radical artistry and galvanizing message that the world desperately needs now more than ever, and OTEP is ready to answer the call.

Today marks the release of OTEP's first new recorded material since 2018, and it may come as a surprise. "You Should See Me In A Crown" was the lead single from the 2018 debut album of another controversial female figure who cut across musical and social norms to carve out an identity all her own. That artist is, of course, Billie Eilish, and OTEP's cover version is no mere homage to a young acolyte but rather a radical reimagining of the song that mines all of its dark sonic complexity as well as its bold lyrical message, transforming it into the kind of modern metal epic that nobody does better than OTEP.

As Shamaya herself puts it: "To me the song is a warning against cultural reduction, biased underestimation and the volatile anti-Newtonian reaction of judging someone before you know their true power."

Last September, Shamaya told the 96.7 KCAL-FM program "Wired In The Empire" that OTEP was putting the finishing touches on its ninth album for a tentative early 2023 release. "We've just finished mixing, and we're about to go into mastering," she said. "And then it's really up to the label to decide when they're gonna release it, what they're gonna release, which single they're gonna release. I have some say as to, you know, what I recommend, but ultimately it lies on them."

Regarding the songwriting process for OTEP's new album, Shamaya said: "This record actually was written with a couple of different songwriters, which I was really excited to work with. 'Kult 45' was my last album, which is four years old now. It's insane to believe that it's been four years, but it has. When I went back in the studio, the band had sort of dispersed at that point — everybody was trying to make a living and trying to find other jobs — and so I just went to the producer and we sat down and we found some really, really talented, creative people. And even though I've been doing this for a long time and have accomplished a lot — at least I think I have — I really work best with mentors. I like people that are, I feel, creatively better than I am so that I can have this sort of spiritual intercourse between all of us where we're sort of sharing ideas and I'm inspiring them and they're inspiring me."

Throughout the span of her career, Shamaya has been an undeniable force in bringing awareness via various acclaimed mediums to social and political injustices felt by various communities and subcultures. For years, publications such as Revolver magazine have lauded Shamaya for "following in the footsteps of outspoken musicians from folk singer Woody Guthrie to RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE's Zach de la Rocha, dubbing her "one of music's catalysts for social change".

OTEP's latest album, the aforementioned "Kult 45", was released in 2018. The LP was recorded at The Lair in Los Angeles, completely utilizing the same equipment used for OTEP's first album, "Sevas Tra" (down to Shamaya's vocal microphone, a SHURE Beta 58),in order to create a sound reminiscent of their roots. "Kult 45" was produced by the band, with assistant engineering from Larry Goetz, Nicolas Schilke and Lizzy Ostro.

#otep #You Should See Me In A Crown #cover #billie eilish #metal ladies #metal music #Youtube

[s-o-n-de-r]

Tennis Courts treats us with party rock anthem in “Jamie’s Party”

Review by Travis Boyer

In spite of its raucous, jangly melodic exterior, “Jamie’s Party,” the new single by Brooklyn indie rockers Tennis Courts, is dedicated to when the last party of the season is winding down, everyone’s heading out, but you’re staggering home in a mixed up, inebriated and lovesick stupor. Miraculously, you reach your humble abode, only to faceplant in the front yard after a long night of wallowing in your own self-pity. From the indie rock quartet’s upcoming, full-length debut LP, “Jamie’s Party” is a party rock anthem for when you’re desperately hung up on a summer crush who doesn’t even know you exist.

At first, “Jamie’s Party” eases in with a tempered, but driven guitar, but that’s only the wind-up. Before long, it will occasionally rumble to life with tumbling drums kick starting the festivities. On the surface, it’s the roaring, untameable life of the party that sweeps away your inhibitions and reservations for a shining moment in time.

However, as is the case with nearly every gathering, there’s someone stewing in the corner, wishing they were anywhere else. In this track, it’s someone who’s been pining away all summer long after someone, presumably Jamie, but time is running out. Instead, they’re drowning away their sorrows in a self-fulfilling prophecy of eternal loneliness. Before they know it, summer’s over, Jamie’s gone, and she never knew that you existed. Altogether, “Jamie’s Party” is about the type who will hold their torch, but never works up the nerve to have someone share in the glow.

What Tennis Courts has in “Jamie’s Party” is a classic tongue in cheek, indie rock romp about being so wrapped in your feelings that you’re never able to let loose. Aside from that, “Jamie’s Party” is a killer summertime tune that is guaranteed to bring life to any party.  

—

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#tennis courts #reviews #by travis #bands #band blog

[theeverlastingshade]

Favorite Albums of 2023

10. i’ve seen a way- Mandy, Indiana

2023 wasn’t a year lacking in compelling, well-realized debut LPs that hinted at artists with a completely fully-formed sound before a follow-up LP. Manchester’s Mandy, Indiana was one of those artists, and their debut LP, i’ve seen a way, was one of this year’s most satisfying surprises, with its potent blend of danceable beats, serrated guitars, menacing synths, and versatile vocals courtesy of Valentine Caulfield. Here, nimble rhythms collided with thick slabs of dissonance in a way that distilled the best of dance punk, no wave, post-punk, and noise music without sounding beholden to any single sensibility or stylistic presentation. Caulfield’s writing, sung entirely in French, was an evocative series of leftist insights made all the more potent juxtaposed against her band’s relentless sonic onslaught. It’s rare for music to achieve such an infectious, blood-pumping high with the visceral suggestion of violence emerging around every crevice in the mix, but M,I achieved just that with aplomb, making good on the tired “indie sleeze revival” narrative with music more assured and singular than pretty much anything to come from that dubious umbrella descriptor. Regardless of whether or not dance punk continues to sustain the momentum it achieved this year moving forward, M,I seem likely to continue growing into one of the most thrilling bands active today.

Essentials: “Pinking Shears”, “Peach Fuzz”, “Drag [Crashed]”

9. Everyone’s Crushed- Water From Your Eyes

Very few bands in 2023 experienced the kind of well-deserved payoff that Water From Your Eyes did. After years of honing their craft with increasingly strong records, playing over 90 shows this year, and garnering appreciation for their humor and talent through seemingly outlandish but impressively well-realized covers, the Brooklyn-based experimental pop duo that consists of vocalist Rachel Brown and multi-instrumentalist/producer Nate Amos seemed to have finally gotten their due. And in addition to the impressive aforementioned feats, (as well as the reason for the arrival of their due) WFYE also released their best record to date earlier this year with their perma-stoned art-pop opus, Everyone’s Crushed. On EC, the duo concocted a collection of 9 thrilling songs that veer from whiplash inducing sound collages (“Barley”), to superbly-textured drone compositions (“Open”) to string-laden ballads (“14”), to propulsive post-punk rippers (“Buy My Product”) with air-tight sequencing and finesse. Like many of the albums that I love from this year, EC walks a tightrope between being an impressive display of eclecticism and a disjointed mess, but to my ears it never quite veers into the latter category, and it’s that high-wire sense of ambition that makes it such a thrilling record. And Brown’s writing, which blends irreverence and absurdity with cutting capitalist critiques strewn over the top of their colorful cacophonies really elevates the album into a singular, sprawling fever dream.

Essentials: “Barley”, “True Life”, “Buy My Product”

8. Maps- billy woods and Kenny Segal

There’s been quite a bit of discussion surrounding 2023 being the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, and there wasn’t a single release from this year that I listened to that really showcased the indisputable longevity of the form quite like Maps, a full-length collaboration between rapper billy woods and produce Kenny Segal. Maps is the second collaboration between woods and Segal, and it’s the strongest release that either of them have released to date. The conceit is essentially a concept album about life on the road as a touring musician, and the pair deliver an eclectic collection of songs that revel in the absurdity of this necessary component of their chosen careers. The largest draw of Maps is undoubtedly woods at the center of the storm, waxing poetic on everything from food to drugs to sound checks with wit and candor in his distinctly deadpan drawl. But Segal is no slouch, and his beats are in rich in color and personality, drawing from disarmingly (at least for woods) melodic pockets of soul, funk, and jazz for woods to wade in. Danny Brown, Quelle Chris, Elucid, Aesop Rock, and ShrapKnel each drop by to deliver a show stopping verse, and it’s a testament to the craft on display that neither host is ever upstaged. Maps is the byproduct of two artists in complete command of their respective crafts, and operating at the highest level with a hunger that belies their status as veterans.

Essentials: “Year Zero” ft. Danny Brown, “Babylon By Bus” ft. ShrapKnel, “Kenwood Speakers”

7. Dogsbody- Model/Actriz

In another year dominated by discourse on terminally chill, sonically inoffensive indie music, Dogsbody, the debut LP from Model/Actriz, arrived like a refreshing Molotov lobbed at your favorite music publication. The Brooklyn 4 piece specialize in a brooding, blood-stained fusion of dance punk, post-punk, industrial, and noise music with glints of chamber pop peaking through the din. The music is extremely well-realized, and frontman Cole Hayden’s horny yet harrowing vocal prowess imbues the music with a truly idiosyncratic, unsettling allure. Their early EPs were satisfying early forays into shaping what would become their claustrophobic yet danceable sound, but on Dogsbody everything crystallized into a sharp distillation of their disparate influences (namely the musical Cats and Throbbing Gristle). Here, brutal noise-flecked floor-starters custom-tailored for igniting mosh-pits like “Mosquito” and “Amaranth” collide with disarming, tastefully rendered ballads like “Sleepless” and “Divers” without disrupting the sequencing or compromising any shred of the momentum. The band’s consistency and commitment with respect to both ends of their sonic spectrum proved that there’s far more to them than simply being a nightmarish incarnation of Brooklyn’s next generation of “indie sleeze”, or any other fabricated projection more fixated on their image and what they represent than what they’ve proven remarkably adept at musically.

Essentials: “Sleepless”, “Divers”, “Moquito”

6. Raven- Kelela

Kelela’s music has been so consistently excellent from the jump that it’s been easy to take the quality of her releases for granted, but the monumental leap forward that she made on her 2nd LP, Raven, was just too immense to gloss over. Raven unfolds like a meditative spell across its 15 song, hour-long runtime, with immaculate sequencing that lends the experience the feel of an air-tight dj set even throughout its quieter corners. Kelela initially made a name for herself by flirting with the conventions of r&b and experimental electronic music until the boundaries felt non-existent, and on Raven she incorporates garage, drum & bass, and ambient music (with the assistance of an all-star team of producers that includes Kaytranada, LSDXOXO, Bambii, Junglepussy, and more) into the proceedings in a way that feels ambitious and daring but never quite exceeds her depth. Bookended by two gorgeous ambient totems (“Washed Away” and “Far Away”, respectively) that tastefully frame the record, Raven finds Kelela masterfully juggling floor-filling heaters like “Happy Ending” and “Contact” with subdued breathers like “Closure” and “Sorbet” that result in a dynamic, multi-faceted journey. And the writing, which touches on themes of self-realization, reinvention, and acceptance delivered with her versatile vocal approach that’s expressive but delivered with a smoky nonchalance, is her most gripping work to date. Kelela’s been a singular, inimitable artist for over a decade now, and Raven finds her continuing to find compelling new avenues for her voice to flourish in.

Essentials: “Raven”, “Happy Endings”, “Contact”

5. Radical Romantics- Fever Ray

With each passing year I continue to mourn the dissolution of The Knife, the beloved Swedish experimental electronic duo comprised of siblings Karin and Olof Dreijer, who made some of the most striking music, electronic or otherwise, of the 21st century so far, but thankfully Karin continues to make thrilling music under their Fever Ray solo moniker (and Olof’s solo work is also pretty solid, fwiw). Fever Ray’s 3rd LP, Radical Romantics, is their strongest solo record to date; one that achieves a near perfect balance between pop’s pleasure center and the adventurous allure of the avant-garde. The amount of range on display here is impressive at every turn. Early highlight “New Utensils” lurches to life with an infectious visceral intensity all too uncommon in synth-pop while single “Carbon Dioxide” is a floor-filling heater that's disarming in its immediacy. And while their now familiar thematic focus on carnal desires is thoroughly present, particularly on the swaggering early cut “Shiver”, and the show stopping centerpiece “Kandy”, RR finds Karin expanding their scope to tackle subjects like trans erasure (“What They Call Us”), the difficulty of dating as a middle-aged queer person (“Looking for a Ghost”), and what is easily the greatest helicopter parent bully revenge song ever penned (“Even It Out”). RR is just flex after flex of the most sublime synth-pop that I’ve heard all year fronted by the pied piper of goth-tinged off-kilter electronic music. We didn’t deserve the singularity of The Knife, and we sure as hell don’t deserve the singularity of Fever Ray.

Essentials: “Kandy”, “New Utensils”, “Carbon Dioxide”

4. This Stupid World- Yo La Tengo

It’s difficult to discuss Yo La Tengo without reference to the legendary indie rock institution’s nearly unparalleled longevity. The New Jersey based trio have been making good to great records since the mid-80s, and although what’s widely acknowledged as their “imperial phase” was from 1993-2000, they’ve still managed to release more great records in the years since that period than most bands manage to release halfway decent songs throughout their lifespan. The trio’s 17th LP, This Stupid World, happens to be one of their finest to date, and while generally praised as a “return to form”, which on some level it certainly is (the form in question being their penchant for pitch-perfect loud/soft dynamics, angelic vocal harmonies, generous use of distortion and feedback, and a general head in the clouds sort of dreaminess that almost threatens to belie the remarkable precision on display), but it’s not merely the sort of resting on past laurels at the highest possible level that that sort of designation tends to imply. The most satisfying development on TSW that pushes their sound into exciting new sonic realms for them is the pair of lengthy droning cuts in the form of the title track and “Miles Away” that close out the record. The band have flirted with drone before, but not quite like this, with the former sustaining distorted clusters of notes alongside a chugging floor tom/sleigh bell rhythm as they build steam through bludgeoning repetition and subtle tonal shifts while the latter takes a softer approach with a beating snare set against drummer Georgia Hubley’s ethereal croon and thick washes of white noise and negative space. They’re masterful exercises in restraint, and portend a few interesting directions the band could go next. And the prior 7 songs are just as compelling, whether we’re talking about the explosive stage setting opener (“Sinatra Drive Breakdown”), the lilting breather (“Aselestine”), the hypnotic, bass-led march (“Tonight’s Episode”) or anything else here. YLT’s consistency as indie rock lifers content to continue honing their craft, devoid of trend or clout chasing, remains as inspiring as ever.

Essentials: “Sinatra Drive Breakdown”, “This Stupid World” “Until It Happens”

3. the whaler- Home Is Where

This is probably the most underrated record that I’ve written about all year, which is a damn shame for several different reasons, but perhaps most of all because it’s a record with an appeal far beyond the fifth-wave emo wave that birthed it. Home Is Where are unabashedly emo, by their own admission, and they strike a sweet spot sonically, lyrically, and thematically between 4th wave emo legends, The Hotelier, and cult favorite Neutral Milk Hotel (which HIW have also acknowledged, albeit jokingly). And while there’s a lot of truth to through lines like raw, unvarnished vulnerability, surrealism, urgency, and ample use of singing saw that makes that parallel feel particularly apt, HIW are very much on their own trip. Their classic 2021 debut LP, I Became Birds, still feels like a lightning in a bottle 18 minute leftist masterwork that seamlessly blended emo, punk, hardcore, and folk into an idiosyncratic statement of purpose with more personality and purpose than the vast majority of their peers, emo or otherwise. The band’s follow-up, the whaler, doubles down on the promise of IBB with a more sobering tone and an even further refined sonic palette. The band’s eclecticism is still on display, but the ingenuity is even more pronounced, with whiplash inducing mid-song stylistic shifts such as the folk foundations of “lily pad puplis” slowly transitioning into a hardcore breakdown, or the tape loop sound collage of opener “skin meadow” bleeding into an anthemic emo rollercoaster, that are inventive and thrilling in their disregard for convention. Like on IBB, frontwoman Brandon MacDonald uses sublime surreal imagery in service of leftist sentiments, but her critiques are sharper and more colorful this time around. There’s a tremendous deal to unpack and admire about the 10 dynamic songs on tw, and the generous melodicism coursing throughout it all makes it all too easy to get lost in. Irreverent, earnest, adventurous, and flush with unabashed integrity, tw exemplifies so much of what I find exciting about in art, and cements HIW as one of the most exciting bands active.

Essentials: “floral organs”, “everyday feels like 9/11”, “skin meadow”

2. After the Magic- Parannoul

Shoegaze is in a tremendously exciting place right now. It’s undergone a completely unprecedented creative resurgence throughout the 2020s as arty projects have emerged from disparate scenes around the world putting their own spin on the genre through the increasingly low barrier to entry afforded by modern technology, and this coupled with the bizarre traction that many of its new practitioners have experienced on Tik-Tok this year has given it a curiously heightened level of visibility. Which makes it all the more fitting that one of, if not the most exciting shoegaze album of the decade so far is After the Magic, the 3rd LP courtesy of the anonymous, South Korea-based solo bedroom shoegaze act, Parannoul. After toiling away in obscurity for years, Parannoul had an unprecedented level of visibility with their 2021 breakthrough LP, To See the Next Part of the Dream, which lit up the blogs due to its adventurous strain of entirely MIDI-generated lo-fi, emo-leaning shoegaze, and ATM ups the ante of its predecessor on every conceivable level. The sound of ATM is still emo-leaning shoegaze, but the scale of the music here is simply enormous, incorporating elements of disparate genres like K-pop and hardcore into the fold of their stadium-sized shoegaze without diluting their approach. Early highlight “Arrival” erupts into a furious Siamese Dream style suite of blown-out guitars that feels like it could level buildings, while “Parade” unfolds like a disarmingly tender trojan horse imbued with gorgeous vocal harmonies juxtaposed against field recordings of fireworks and children playing, and it’s a testament to the sprawling ambition throughout that both pieces feel right at home and don’t even remotely disrupt the flow of the record. Naturally, the words are sung entirely in Korean, but you don’t need to understand a word of Korean to understand the emotional thrust of the music. On ATM, the music itself is more expressive than any words could ever really convey. Parannoul remains a rare talent who fully understands music’s expressive sonic potential, and thoroughly taps into that to distill worlds of feeling into their work.

Essentials: “We Shine at Night”, “Blossom”, “Arrival”

1. Rat Saw God- Wednesday

In my experience, it’s rare for an album that was hyped beyond reasonable expectation to actually live up to the hype, and maybe over deliver on the anticipated excitement, but Wednesday achieved just that with their fifth LP, Rat Saw God. The Ashville-based 5 piece have been making great music that sits at the intersection of shoegaze, lo-fi indie rock, grunge, and alt-county for a handful of years now, but RSG feels like the culmination of their sensibilities, and the album they've been working towards throughout their brief but substantial career so far. The music on RSG consists of bleak, bad-vibe bummer jams that are considerably more polished than Wednesday’s music has ever sounded, but the curdled undercurrent of observations accumulated through growing up in the late-capitalist American south still unfurl with the same harrowing disposition. The music roars to life with vivacious licks courtesy of guitarist MJ Lenderman on songs like opener “Hot Rotten Grass Smell” and early epic “Bull Believer”, but it’s equally arresting in the album’s moments of fleeting tranquility like on “Formula One” and “What’s So Funny”. The ensemble performances throughout RSG captivate at every turn, and it’s the scrappy execution that imbues the music with so much charm and personality which help the morose details go down smoother. References to Narcan, desolation, and crumbling infrastructure are ample, but so is the band’s generous melodicism and infectious communal spirit of perseverance against the odds. Frontwoman Karly Hartzman’s eye for detail is the album’s greatest appeal, and her storytelling on RSG, which touches on everything from a miserable New Year’s Eve party replete with Mortal Kombat and nosebleeds on the aforementioned single “Bull Believer” to domestic abuse that culminates in a drug bust on late album highlight “Quarry”, and so much more throughout these 10 immensely evocative songs. Wednesday exemplify the unbridled catharsis of the best art that any medium has to offer, and while the vignettes throughout RSG are often hard to stomach upon close inspection, they’re also more rewarding and richly rendered than anything else that I’ve had the pleasure of listening to this year.

Essentials: “Bull Believer”, “Quarry”, “Bath County”

#wednesday #parannoul #home is where #yo la tengo #fever ray #kelela #model/actriz #billy woods #kenny segal #water from your eyes #mandy indiana

[mywifeleftme]

259: Needles//Pins // 12:34

12:34 Needles//Pins 2012, Mammoth Cave (Bandcamp)

Shocking Factual Statements About Marriage Help Told By A Specialist

Many women walk around with a guilty-until-proven-innocent attitude toward men, she said. Additionally you might want to generate some rules regarding if you keep in touch together every time you engage in a cybersex activity (before or later) or even if you House Wife Bangers have a mutual understanding that you can play with without consultation. Without piercing your crush’s name onto the human body. The museum’s exhibits and programs show visitors the way the town’s legacy has evolved, and helps them join dating sites with other patrons.

That’s a sampling of the copy currently up on https://www.needlesxpins.com as of January 2024, which is a bummer (House Wife Bangers unfortunately does not link to their upcoming tour dates). Not paying your hosting is normally one of the Seven Seals of Indie Band Apocalypse*, which would be a real shame in the case of Vancouver’s Needles//Pins, a band that held on for a good ten years and dropped one of the most durable garage punk records of the present century. I’m still over the moon for their debut 22-minute EP/LP situation 12:34 from 2012, one of those records I’ll still be raving about as “the essence of rock ‘n’ roll” at age 51 while feverish from some kind of tropical intestinal parasite that now thrives in formerly frosty Montreal. Each of these eleven songs boasts an indelible hook, just-right level of bite, and a frothy beat, like Gremlins playing a ‘50s sock hop. I dunno man, I just want this band to be playing one of my locals every Saturday night for eternity, for cigarettes and whiskey not to hurt me so much, for infinite room for impromptu tattoos. I’m a simple man at heart, but if I’m lucky I’m simple like these songs: timeless and deceptively good to lean on when you need to.

259/365

* The Seven Seals of the Indie Band Apocalypse

Last release 3+ years ago.

Last social media post more than two years ago says, “Sorry for the silence, we’ll be back and better than ever before you know it!”

Website’s full of weird ads.

Label has removed them from artist roster.

Most recent record on deep discount from the distro.

Members’ personal IGs mostly photos from the cottage.

Main songwriter’s moved cities and has a LinkedIn.

#needles//pins #vancouver #vancouver music #pop punk #garage punk #buzzcocks #the exploding hearts #music review #vinyl record #'10s music #canadian music

[doomedandstoned]

MARGARITA WITCH CULT Summon Chills with “The Witchfinder Comes”

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~

By Billy Goate

Bursting on the scene from Birmingham, England, we welcome to the pages of Doomed & Stoned MARGARITA WITCH CULT. Today the doom rock trio are sharing a new single and music video from their upcoming self-titled debut.

"The Witchfinder Comes" is a menacing number that likely alludes to the Puritan zealots Matthew Hopkins and John Stearne, who hung hundreds of suspected witches during the English Civil War. The song's chorus is as irresistible as its rollicking, Sabbath-style riff-making (and a bit chilling): "Oh son, what you done wrong? All I know is you'd better be gone. Oh son, you'd better run, run. Don't be around when The Witchfinder comes."

In the band's own words, the track is "a macabre tale of an impending witch hunt, climaxing with the subject running in fear over the spiraling coda. The slab of bludgeoning '70s style proto-metal is a stadium sized version of the song which first appeared on the band’s demo cassette that brought the Margarita Witch Cult to the public eye in 2022.”

Margarita Witch Cult is a vibrant, rollicking old-school doomer from edge to center. On April 21st, Heavy Psych Sounds will issue the album in a stunning array of media (pre-order here). Stick it on a playlist with Black Sabbath, Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, Warlung, Orchid, and Bang.

Give ear...

WATCH & LISTEN: Margarita Witch Cult - "The Witchfinder Comes"

SOME BUZZ

Born from the murky industrial depths of Birmingham, UK, Margarita Witch Cult’s self-titled debut studio album is a tour-de-force in classic metal, hard rock, doom, and mind-melting psych.

A thunderous drum fill propels you into opener "Diabolical Influence" -- a lurching behemoth of a tune that makes easy bedfellows of crushing stoner riffs, Latin incantations, and a simply humongous chorus. The pace quickens with the frantic "Death Lurks at Every Turn" -- a hair-raising thrasher of breakneck snare rolls and unruly guitar solos. "The Witchfinder Comes" only furthers the sense of foreboding, as tales of torture and pleas for exile fall on the ever-deafening ears of the listener. "Be My Witch" comes in hot and heavy as a grungy ode to the forbidden, and the blistering "Annihilation" concludes side A with speed-freak ferocity.

The more adventurous and immersive side B is kick-started with "Theme From Cyclops" –- the deft chops of all three members being undeniable as we gallop into the ambitious, face-melting journey that is "Lord Of The Flies" -- a belting doom groover that culminates in a classic guitar & bass dual to rival even the most virtuosic of axe-wielders. As we near the end of our perilous sonic expedition, "Aradia" serves up an instrumental serving of pure downtuned filth, with sleazy swagger and tasteful shredding that give extra provenance to its author's deep bag of tricks.

MARGARITA WITCH CULT - Margarita Witch Cult by HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS Records

The killer blow comes in the shape of the simply savage "Sacrifice" -- an unholy exhibition of undeniable force. The duality of the track makes for an experience that leaves our sweet listener reeling- the bludgeoning weight of its monstrous main-riff giving way to razor-sharp verses and a tripped-out, mind-bending psych jam- only to come crashing back to crushing reality as the final, fatal notes ring out.

With their debut LP, Margarita Witch Cult have crafted a timeless, merciless beast; one that will chew you up and spit you out, yet somehow keep you crawling back for more. The Sabbath City power trio is serving a heavy handed measure of '80s thrash precision mutated with '90s stoner groove. Infatuated with themes of the occult and proto-metal aesthetics, Margarita Witch Cult tell tales of the village witchfinder, omniscient death, archaic blood rituals.

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Get Their Music

#D&S Debuts #Margarita Witch Cult #Birmingham #England #UK #doom metal #stoner rock #occult #Heavy Psych Sounds #HeavyBest2023 #D&S Reviews #Doomed and Stoned

[cyarskaren52]

Every Rage Against The Machine album ranked from worst to best

When Rage Against The Machine's incendiary debut album was unleashed in the winter of 1992, it felt like an atomic bomb being set off at the heart of the metal scene. Matching the snarling bars of talented rapper Zack de la Rocha with the earth-shaking riffs and experimental eccentricities of guitarist Tom Morello, anchored by the powerhouse, groove-driven rhythm section of bassist Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk, it was unlike anything else in alternative music at the time.

By the end of the decade and following three more studio albums, Rage Against The Machine's time as a creative output was already done, the band split up and with three quarters of its members soon to team up with Soundgarden's Chris Cornell under the banner of Audioslave. Nonetheless, in a recording career even shorter than The Beatles', Rage Against The Machine changed heavy music forever, and their influence is felt as keenly now as it was thirty years ago.

Here is the band's explosive back catalogue, ranked from worst to best.

Every Metallica album ranked from worst to best

Every Megadeth album ranked from worst to best

Every Korn album ranked from worst to best

Every Tool album ranked from worst to best

4. Rage Against The Machine – Renegades (2000)

Covers albums can be hit and miss affairs, but fair play to Rage Against The Machine, Renegades hits the target way more than it misses. The lead single was a fattened-up groove through Afrika Bambaataa’s classic Renegades Of Funk, but whether they’re going gangsta rap on Cypress Hill’s How I Could Just Kill A Man, hardcore punk on Minor Threat’s In My Eyes or garage rock on The Stooges Down On The Street, Rage prove they can adapt without losing any of their own identity. The true highlight though is their brilliant re-imagining of Bob Dylan’s counterculture war cry Maggie's Farm, which brings some musical muscle to fit those seething lyrics.

3. Rage Against The Machine – The Battle Of Los Angeles (1999)

Coming in 1999, three years after the release of Evil Empire, it was a new musical climate that RATM found themselves returning to. The blueprint of rap and hard rock that they had perfected had been co-opted by the hugely popular nu metal bands of the time, but Rage still stayed ahead of the game. The Battle Of Los Angeles is maybe not quite as consistent as the first couple of albums, but it remains a brilliantly powerful piece of work all the same, with the swirling march of Testify, the rhythmically dexterous Calm Like A Bomb and the bouncing, crushing Sleep Now In The Fire (complete with its iconic video where Rage shut down the Stock Exchange) all becoming definitive moments in the band's career.

2. Rage Against The Machine – Evil Empire (1996)

Seen as a bit of a dip at the time of release in 1996, it’s good to see that RATM’s sophomore album now gets the dues that it richly deserves. It’s really only due to the fact that it followed one of the greatest albums ever made that it has to take the silver medal here, and even then, it is only by the very smallest of margins. Evil Empire is a phenomenal record, spawning mega hits like Bulls On Parade and People Of The Sun, but it’s when you dig a little deeper that you can really get the genius of this record. Songs like the psychedelic punk of Revolver or the scattergun jazz of Down Rodeo are as good and as experimental as anything Rage have ever written. It might be number two here, but this is still a ten out of ten album.

1. Rage Against The Machine – Rage Against The Machine (1992)

One of the most revolutionary albums in the history of music, the 1992 debut album by Rage Against The Machine remains legitimately groundbreaking and utterly perfect. By the early 90s, rap and rock had started to become closely linked, but no one could have seen the amalgam of the two styles being so perfectly realised as it is here. It’s really no exaggeration to say that almost every track on Rage Against The Machine has gone on to become an anthem of the era which still stands up today; Know Your Enemy, Bullet In The Head, Freedom, Bombtrack and, of course, Killing In The Name, there are plenty of bands who have released greatest hits albums that couldn’t hold a candle to the track listing here. Morello’s unique guitar style, the perfectly synched, tightly wound rhythm section and De La Rocha’s furious and intelligent raps...you’d not change a single second of this record, an all-time great.

Since blagging his way onto the Hammer team a decade ago, Stephen has written countless features and reviews for the magazine, usually specialising in punk, hardcore and 90s metal, and still holds out the faint hope of one day getting his beloved U2 into the pages of the mag. He also regularly spouts his opinions on the Metal Hammer Podcast.

With contributions from

Merlin AldersladeExecutive Editor, Louder

AI alert: blues legend Junior Wells has just released an official newly recorded single despite dying in 1998

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