The Death Wheelers describe their sound on their Bandcamp page as “sleaze ‘n’ roll.” That’s perfect, and their newest album Chaos and the Art of Motorcycle Madness is a prime example of that sound.
Churning out a dozen instrumental stoner-doom jams (apart from some clever samples of dialogue from biker and horror films), The Death Wheelers get right down to dirty business (after the brief intro of “The Scum Always Rises to the Top”) on “Morbid Bails,” showing off deft shredding and growling bass thuds in the same track.
The voice of Scott Glenn in the movie Angles As Hard As They Come saying “I ride where I want, wear that I want, get stoned when I want,” starts off the wild, hammering “Les Mufflers Du Mal.” “Ride into the Röt (Everything Lewder Than Everything Else)” is both a fun Motörhead reference and a stoner-surf ripper (with a sample of Ernest Borgnine from The Devil’s Rain, no less).
“We want to be free to ride our machines without being hassled by the man! And we want to get loaded!” yells a young man in the film Lucifer’s Bend at the start of “Triple D (Dead, Drunk, and Depraved),” which is a quick introduction to, no surprise, “Lucifer’s Bend” – a song about the devil’s long reach. “Brain Bucket” is a fun little track about a motorcycle crash that leads into the horror-surf of “Open Road X Open Casket.”
“Motortician” is, go figure, a track about tripping out and ultimately checking out on your bike. “Interquaalude” might be the best-titled track in a long while. “Sissy Bar Strut (Nymphony 69)” is a wild psychedelic jam that fades out because it appears to have no end in sight. “Cycling for Satan Part II” takes off with all pipes open and throttles jammed forward and roars to an abrupt, distorted end.
It’s another ripping album from The Death Wheelers, who don’t need vocals. Their riffs say it all.
Keep your mind open.
[Ride over to the subscription box while you’re here.]
Chicago singer-songwriter Liam Kazar “shows no difficulty finding grooves, building self-contained sonic worlds, and using his voice confidently as an instrument” (Aquarium Drunkard). This is immediately clear throughout his excellent debut album, 2021’s Due North, and is even more apparent in his new single, “Next Time Around,” out today. As Kazar’s first release since Due North, “Next Time Around” unravels with velvet-smooth guitar and his warm croon. The track was recorded by his trusted collaborator Sam Evian and features Evian on bass guitar, Sean Mullins on drums, and Michael Prince Coleman on keys. “‘Next Time Around’ came as songs rarely do, in a single vision. All I had to do was write it down.” Kazar says. “If I knew how to tap into those all the time, I would. We recorded ‘Next Time Around’ right after being on the road for a month in the fall of 2021. There’s a tour tightness to this recording that only comes from spending weeks in a van and onstage with another musician. I think you can hear that in the recording, the tiny bit of air between us while we’re playing packed close together — I feel like I’m right in the room every time I listen. Nod to Sam for capturing this moment so beautifully.” Listen to “Next Time Around” For over a decade, Kazar has consistently been a dream bandmate. He’s an adaptable and skilled musician, leading to tours and collaborations with Jeff Tweedy, Kevin Morby, and Sam Evian, amongst others. His debut, Due North, is a personal revelation, where the more Kazar wrote, the more his songs showed what kind of artist he’s always wanted to be – one whose own joyous rock songs are so irresistible, full of charm, wit and heart, they feel timeless. This summer, Kazar will play in Sam Evian and Kevin Morby’s respective bands across the states. Prior, he’ll play his own shows in New York and Chicago. Tickets for all dates are on sale now. Stream/Purchase Due North
Liam Kazar Tour Dates Thu. Mar. 28 – New York, NY @ Union Pool * Sun. Apr. 7 – Chicago, IL @ The Hideout
There’s an early contender for Most Honest Album of 2024, and it’s Madi Diaz‘s Weird Faith.
The album is about the weird, often intimidating process of falling in love. Diaz puts it all out there as she explores this new relationship. Behind solid rock beats, Diaz opens the album with “Everything Almost” – a song about trying to figure out how many secrets to keep and how many to share with a new lover. “Girlfriend” is the story of Diaz apologizing to a friend that she’s now the new girlfriend (“So sorry I’m your ex’s girlfriend.”), and how awkward it is for everyone involved.
“Underneath the pain, there’s still blood in my veins,” Diaz sings on “Hurting You,” encouraging her new boyfriend to be honest with her about what’s hurting him so they can work it out together. “I’m afraid you’ll run and hide,” she says on “Get to Know Me,” in which she worries that her lover will leave if she fully reveals herself to him. On “Kiss the Wall,” she explores an unknown future full of love, mystery, and what of that love will remain after she and her lover are gone. She’s tempted to fall into despair over being forgotten, but remembers that “Nothing is a waste of time.”
“I’m not a God person, but I’m never not searchin’,” she sings on “God Person,” a song about questioning one’s faith, or lack of it. The melancholy piano chords on “Don’t Do Me Good” echo Diaz’s loneliness and intimidation at the idea of leaving love that, she admits, “don’t do me good,” but might be the wrong decision to do so.
“I don’t love you like I used to. I just don’t know how to tell you…I’ve been leaving you for months now,” Diaz sings on the heartbreaking “For Months Now.” She knows her soon-to-be ex is going to devastated when she leaves, but she also knows she needs to make the call and walk out, because she’s miserable and tired of living a lie.
“KFM” is a fun track about how Diaz becomes so enamored with her new boyfriend that she wants to “kill, fuck, marry you forever.” The title track sums up the entire album. Falling in love, giving in love, requires a weird faith. You go into it knowing there’s the possibility of heartbreak, and that there eventually will be loss (from death, if nothing else), but you make the leap regardless. The closer, “Obsessive Thoughts,” is a big, bold track with guitars and drums blooming from her at-first quiet vocals and Diaz embracing what’s to come.
It’s a powerful record, and one to which we can all relate. We’ve all been there, at different degrees and at different times, and Diaz welcomes us as kindred spirits.
Keep your mind open.
[I have a weird faith that you’ll subscribe today.]
Recorded during the 2022 “Wild Type Droid” tour, Failure‘s We Are Hallucinations is the live album version of the concert film of the same name. The production is sharp as a razor, which is no surprise from Ken Andrews, Greg Edwards, and Kellii “Motherfucking” Scott.
The set covers new and classic tracks, starting with the hammering, powerful “Submarines” to knock you back in your seat. “Mercury Mouth” is just as stunning, with Andrews’ vocals filling the room during the verses and then breaking down walls on the choruses. “Macaque” is a Failure classic that always has a bit of a menacing undertone to it. “Wonderful Life” is a good example of their deceptive lyrics that often reflect themes of struggle and loneliness. It’s also a good example of how Kellii Scott locks in on a groove and will not release it for any price.
“Sent away to have my head checked, no more playing in the sands. Frogs are leaping off my brain stem. They don’t seem to understand,” Andrews sings on the walloping “Frogs” – a song about madness that is so good it’s almost frightening. All three members deliver more power than bands with twice as many members on it. Edwards and Andrews share lead verse vocals on “Atom City Queen,” and Scott’s beats on it are like a Chinese puzzle box in their complexity.
“Counterfeit Sky” is one of many Failure tracks that sounds like an alien transmission, or perhaps what you’d have playing as you entered a strange planet from orbit. The guitar work on it blends psychedelia and shoegaze with masterful skill. The opening guitar on “Force Fed Rainbow” reminds me of early 2000’s David Gilmour riffs. The guitar on “Bring Back the Sound” swirls around you like a slow-moving disco ball casting languid lights in a dark club.
The bass on “Bad Translation” is like some creature rising out of a dark pool of water at the back of a temple on a cold moon. Andrews singing “We are hallucinations.” is almost a sermon to us to remember we are more non-physical than physical. Edwards sings lead on “Half Moon,” a haunting track that seems to reveal his (and, I’m sure, the band’s) love for George Harrison. The live version of “Headstand” on this is nothing short of stunning, with the trio clicking on every level. You can’t really pick out one particular element because everything is perfect.
The last six tracks are selections from their classic album Fantastic Planet. Starting with “Segue 3” to warm up the already-frenzied crowd and then roaring into favorites like “The Nurse Who Loved Me,” “Another Space Song,” “Stuck on You,” “Heliotropic” (in which it sounds like Edwards’ guitar is going to die from exhaustion at any moment), and a crushing rendition of “Daylight.”
This is a must not only for Failure fans, but also fans of shoegaze, 1990s rock, and high-quality music in general. Do not miss it, and never miss Failure when they tour.
Praise be to the good folks at the Reverberation Appreciation Society for conjuring up another excellent Levitation Sessionslive performance recording. Their track record on these sessions is exemplary, and this latest one, featuring Swedish psych-mystics GOAT, is no exception.
The opening track, “Tarot Will Teach You,” pretty much lets you know what you’re in for if you’ve never heard a GOAT record. Jangling, shaking, slithering hand percussion, Mellotron chords, tribal drums, guitars that sound like they’re coming from inside a temple carved into a cliff…It lets you float into a nice space before “Golden Dawn” drops fast funk and one of the singers is asking, “Are you ready to go?” She doesn’t care what your answer is, really, because she and the rest of the band are taking off and will leave you behind if necessary. “Under No Nation” is a great cut with a top-notch guitar solo about how easy it is to forget we are all citizens of the world, not just these little enclaves in which we find ourselves, and that global and local conflicts are worthless endeavors.
“Behind the Plank” is over seven minutes of psych-jazz jamming with killer saxophone work and percussion throughout it. “Do the Dance” makes you want to do exactly that with its pulse-raising beats and power guitar chords played at just the right time. “Fill My Mouth” is the naughtiest song GOAT has released so far, and this live version is raw and funky, and of course there’s a lot of flute in it.
“Lorcan” is nearly seven minutes of krautrock synths and hand percussion. “Queen of the Underground” is vintage GOAT, with heavy riffs, sultry double female vocals, slinky bass, and trance-inducing percussion. “Let It Burn” moves like a fire in a hidden forest clearing, or perhaps atop of cold mountain, with people dancing around it well into the night. The album ends with a tidbit of “Midnight Madness,” which, in the original streamed version of the session, is over seven minutes long. The two-and-a-half minute slice here is a great tease of psych-synth music, leaving all of us wanting more.
It’s always great to hear new stuff from GOAT, who can and have disappeared at will for long stretches of time, only to come back like they never left. Time isn’t linear for them, and their perception of space is probably beyond the senses of many. This live session might help you get there, too.
Keep your mind open.
[Levitate over to the subscription box while you’re here.]
Lisbon trio MAQUINA. (‘Machine’) are today announcing album ‘PRATA’ (‘Silver’), due out April 5th on Fuzz Club, and sharing the first single ‘denial’. In support of the release, MAQUINA. will head out on a European tour withA Place To Bury Strangers, followed by festival appearances at Primavera Porto, Sonic Blast and Fuzz Club 2024.
Drawing from minimal krautrock repetition, pounding industrial techno and EBM, MAQUINA. explore the boundaries of these genres with force, carving out an adrenaline-fuelled sound that’s equally suited to dark, sweaty back rooms and the dance floor. On the new single, MAQUINA. write: “denial is about an inner turmoil and restless contemplation. The raw, haunting lyrics explore the struggle to find solace within oneself, amidst a sea of conflicting emotions. The plea to ‘shut me down’ echoes the yearning for respite in the face of overwhelming darkness.”
Though their sound might have the club in its sights – ‘PRATA’ follows their aptly-titled 2023 debut EP ‘DIRTY TRACKS FOR CLUBBING’ – this is an organic dance music that’s equally punk and psychedelic, played by a guitar-drums-bass power trio formation firing on all cylinders, without a synthesiser in sight. Having already amassed a notorious reputation in Portugal for the all-out energy of their live shows (as evidenced in this live video broadcast by Canal180), it’s no mean feat to replicate that in the studio but on ‘PRATA’ they have managed exactly that – owing to a creative approach largely rooted in improvisation, both on stage and in the studio.
Describing ‘PRATA’, recorded and co-produced by Carlos de Jesus (Sunflowers) at Arda Recorders, they write: “This album was composed spontaneously in the studio throughout the year 2023. It’s music of colour, delving into depths and dimensions that resonate with scale and contrast. Pushing sounds together to make noise and pushing noise together to make sounds. Emphasising textures that evoke feelings and soundscapes rather than relying solely on textual narratives. The music breathes life into auditory canvases, painting sonic panoramas pushing into a world of tactile sensation and immersive experiences.”
MAQUINA. tour dates: 06/04 – Köln, DE @ Club Volta* 07/04 – Karlsruhe, DE @ P8* 09/04 – Milan, IT @ Arci Bellezza* 10/04 – Bologna, IT @ Covo Club* 11/04 – Rome, IT @ Monk* 15/04 – Zurich, CH @ Bogen F* 17/04 – Marseille, FR @ La Makeda* 18/04 – Toulouse, FR @ Le Rex* 20/04 – Madrid, ES @ El Sol* 21/04 – San Sebastián, ES @ Dabadaba* 04/05 – Eindhoven, NL @ Fuzz Club 2024 07/06 – Porto, PT @ Primavera Sound 8-10/08 – Âncora, PT @ Sonic Blast 24 * with A Place To Bury Strangers
Keep your mind open.
[Don’t deny yourself music news and reviews. Subscribe today.]
Next month, Squid — the British quintet of Louis Borlase, Ollie Judge, Arthur Leadbetter, Laurie Nankivell, and Anton Pearson — will embark on a North American tour in support of last year’s expansive and evocative O Monolith. In anticipation, the band share a new single, “Fugue (Bin Song).” A fan favorite and fixture in the band’s live performances over the past several years, the song was recorded during the O Monolith sessions with long-time collaborator Dan Carey at Peter Gabriel’s Real World studio in the spring of 2022 and was initially intended to be included on O Monolith, but didn’t make the final tracklisting. The song was re-mixed and edited by John McEntire (of Tortoise) in the later half of 2023.
O Monolith was praised by Consequence as “one of the most impressively creative rock records to grace 2023.” Following the band’s biggest UK and EU shows yet, Squid’s North American tour will see them stopping in Austin, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Chicago, Los Angeles, and more with Water From Your Eyes supporting all dates. All concerts are listed below and tickets are available here.
This run will feature exclusive tour merch, including a collaborative tour poster from both bands and a homemade, tour exclusive cassette mixtapes from Squid. “It’s an antidote to the immediateness of music consumption nowadays,” Judge says. “It features music by friends and people I admire, probably best to be played at nighttime whilst sat on your favorite chair.” All copies are hand-stamped by Judge and features a Lino print design by Natalie Whiteland.
Today, Burlington-based band Robber Robber — Nina Cates (vocals / rhythm guitar), Zack James (drums), Will Krulak (lead guitar), and Carney Hemler (bass) — share their new single/video, “Sea or War.” Co-produced by James, Cates, and Benny Yurco (Grace Potter), “Sea or War” speaks to the moments of confusion and reflection that happen as you try to navigate a messy world, represented through relentless percussion contrasted with fluid melodies. Of the track, the band explains: “‘Sea or War’ explores how fine the balance feels between comfort and futility. There are various opposing forces being fused together, which can be felt in the lyrics, musical arrangement, and production.”
James and Cates have been playing music together since they were kids. Immersing themselves in the eclectic Burlington scene, they began writing songs and formed Robber Robber. The past few years has given the project time to “live and breathe” while the band honed in on their songwriting and captured the tangible group dynamic they’ve cultivated on stage: “With this curiosity-driven approach, we were able to really conceptualize and fine-tune what we wanted Robber Robber to be,” says the band. “This project is very conceptual, and therefore can be difficult to pinpoint, and that’s part of what we find refreshing about it. We feel a lot of freedom in having loose parameters to fit into.”
Next month, Robber Robber will play shows in Burlington, Northampton, and Brooklyn previewing new music to be released later this year.
Robber Robber Live Dates Thu. Feb. 1 – Burlington, VT @ Radio Bean Fri. Feb. 2 – Northampton, MA @ 90 King St. Sat. Feb. 3 – Brooklyn, NY @ The Sultan Room Thu. March 28 – Boston, MA @ O’Briens Pub *
* = w/ Thus Love and Native Sun Keep your mind open.
fanclubwallet — the project of Canadian singer-songwriter Hannah Judge — announces a new, full band EP, Our Bodies Paint Traffic Lines, out March 29th via Cool Online, and shares lead single “Band Like That.” The 24-year-old, until now proudly DIY in her approach, has enlisted the help of three close friends from the Ottawa scene (who also happen to be her touring band) for her most exciting release yet and “Band Like That” is the first taste of the band’s new direction. “I had spent months studying everyone else’s bands,” says Hannah, acknowledging a love for the likes of Metric, Pinback, Plumtree, and Alex G. “What made them so good? Why couldnt I be like them? And that’s where this new track came from.” In the accompanying video, Hannah’s character obsesses over a local band, eventually kidnapping its members and becoming headline news in a real-life newspaper called Club Chronicles created by Hannah herself and to be distributed around her hometown of Ottawa in the near future.
Once upon a time Hannah had been perfectly content sitting at home alone mucking around with cheap keyboards. But as fanclubwallet garnered more and more listeners on streaming services (breakthrough song “Car Crash in G Major” currently sits pretty on 13 million Spotify plays), a nationwide live tour quickly became an inevitability – even if it was something the once “debilitatingly shy” Hannah never expected would happen to her.
Things change when you leave the confines of your bedroom — not least the need to reconceptualize certain songs for a full-band dynamic. Thankfully for Hannah, that transition from DIY singer-songwriter to band leader was free of the usual tensions. In fact, since fanclubwallet had already started touring as a quartet before the new material came along, it could hardly have been simpler.
“I was lucky that when the time came to find a band, I had one standing right in front of me,” she says. Step forward: Nathan Reid (bass), Eric Graham (guitar) and Michael Watson, who not only played drums, but produced and mixed the record. “It’s cool to let your best friends take the lead,” says Hannah, who’s known half the band since way back in third grade, and once upon a time acted as their tour photographer. “They feel like my arms and my legs. Extensions of myself!”
After tracking one demo in a LA Airbnb and another in Alabama when their van broke down while on tour, the four of them de-banked to a cottage in Gatineau, Quebec, before applying the final touches at Port William Sound in Frontenac, Ontario – “an awesome place in the middle of nowhere.” The result is an EP partly conceived on the road which also deals thematically with the trials and tribulations of living and working in music — whether that’s the initial shock of leaving your more normal sedentary existence behind, band envy, stage fright, creepy photographers or simply finding joy in the collective.
Taking inspiration from 90s zine culture and leaning on Hannah’s side hustle as a cartoonist, fanclubwallet will release the EP with an exclusive set of comics, trading cards and chord charts for each song allowing fans to play along.
Dry Cleaning will reissue their first two EPs, Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks / Sweet Princess, on March 8th, 2024. Remastered to celebrate the release, Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks and Sweet Princesswill be pressed as one single vinyl record. The former will be available on cassette for the first time and include an exclusive bonus single, a demo of New Long Legsingle, “Strong Feelings,” recorded during the sessions for Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks. Today, the band has shared a new visualizer for the song “Sit Down Meal,” the first in a series of new visualizers created for all tracks across the EP by original ‘Magic of Meghan’ video collaborator Lucy Vann.
To coincide with the reissues, Dry Cleaning will head back on the road this March and April for headline sets that will lean heavily on songs from Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks and Sweet Princess. The tour will offer fans the chance to see the band play in more intimate venues and honor US shows that were postponed in 2020 (including SXSW). Tickets are on sale. Full tour dates are listed below and for tickets and information, head HERE.
The EPs will be reissued on vinyl featuring the original artwork and lyric sheet. Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks / Sweet Princess will be available digitally, on standard black LP, transparent blue LP (indie variant), CD and cassette on March 8th. To pre-order head HERE.
After a prolific 18-month period releasing two critically acclaimed John Parish-produced studio albums, New Long Leg (2021) and Stumpwork (2022), as well as last year’s companion release the five-track Swampy EP, South London’s Dry Cleaning are taking a moment to reflect on their journey and pay homage to their roots.
Dry Cleaning’s origin story is well known by now. Guitarist Tom Dowse, drummer Nick Buxton, and bassist Lewis Maynard had been friends and musical collaborators for years, and invited mutual friend Florence Shaw – a visual artist, picture researcher and drawing lecturer – to join the band in 2017. With clear musical influences from the Feelies, the Necessaries, the B52s and Pylon, and constrained by the small garage space they rehearsed in, Dry Cleaning were drawn to making simple music; direct and uncomplicated, anything superfluous was left behind.
By March 2018 the group had recorded the six-track debut EP Sweet Princess with producer Kristian Craig Robinson at Total Refreshment Centre in a single day. Two months later, in May 2018, the band played their first live show in Dalston at the Shacklewell Arms, and released the EP in August. Sweet Princess was a thrilling debut, its dizzying and restless instrumentals with Shaw’s sardonic vocals delivering a satirical collage of witty observations and social commentary. A further 6 songs in the form of the Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks EP quickly followed two months after. It was named in tribute to the band’s rehearsal space in Maynard’s family’s south London (Sidcup) home, and to his mother Susan whose home-cooked meals sustained the four friends in between sessions. With singles like “Sit Down Meal” and “Viking Hair,” Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks is a powerful companion to Sweet Princess. They share a similar pent-up energy, unsurprising given they came to life in the same environment those EPs were created in, an environment that had a huge influence on the band during those formative years.
Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks / Sweet Princess Tracklisting: Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks: A1. Dog Proposal A2. Viking Hair A3. Spoils A4. Jam After School A5. Sit Down Meal
Sweet Princess: B1. Goodnight B2. New Job B3. Magic of Meghan B4. Traditional Fish B5. Phone Scam B6. Conversation
Dry Cleaning 2024 Tour Dates: Sun. Mar. 10 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle Mon. Mar. 11 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle Wed. Mar. 13 – Sat. Mar. 16 – Austin, TX @ SXSW Mon. Mar. 18 – Los Angeles, CA @ Roxy Tue. Mar. 19 – Los Angeles, CA @ Roxy Thu. Mar. 21 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent Fri. Mar. 22 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent Sat. Mar. 23 – Boise, ID @ Treefort Festival Mon. Mar. 25 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom Tue. Mar. 26 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom Fri. Apr. 5 – Glasgow, UK @ Saint Luke’s Sat. Apr. 6 – Newcastle, UK @ The Grove Sun. Apr. 7 – Birkenhead, UK @ Future Yard Tue. Apr. 9 – Dublin, IE @ Whelan’s Wed. Apr. 10 – Dublin, IE @ Whelan’s Fri. Apr. 12 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club Sat. Apr. 13 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club Mon. Apr. 15 – Birmingham, UK @ Hare and Hounds Tue. Apr. 16 – Birmingham, UK @ Hare and Hounds Thu. Apr. 18 – London, UK @ EartH Theatre Sat. Apr. 20 – Rotterdam, NL @ Motel Mozaique Sun. Apr. 21 – Antwerp, BE @ Trix Hall Tue. Apr. 23 – Munster, DE @ Gleis 22 Wed. Apr. 24 – Berlin, DE @ Halle am Berghain Fri. Apr. 26 – Paris, FR @ La Gaite Lyrique Fri. May 24 – Madrid, ES @ Tomavistas Festival Sat. Jun. 29 – North Adams, MA @ Solid Sound Festival
