Rock – Page 28 – 7th Level Music

FACS releases new single, “When You Say,” ahead of their third album due April 07, 2023.

Chicago trio FACS have been perfecting their brand of intense, cathartic art rock over the course of four ever-evolving albums. Beginning with 2018’s Negative Houses thru 2021’s landmark Present Tense, the trio digs deep into the gaping maw of a black hole and pulls back whatever debris they can grasp onto. Their newest LP Still Life In Decay, which arrives April 7th, comes as an addendum to their last album— a “post-event review,” if you will.

When the guitar punctures the lock-step swing of first album single “When You Say,” it hits like a hammer. Case utilizes his lyrics like a person suffering from anterograde amnesia, repeating phrases and holding onto old memories in a desperate attempt to avoid the slide into oblivion. Freeform poetic missives touch on themes of resignation, cynicism, class warfare, and a search for identity and meaning in a crumbling society; A primal desire to hold onto anything in a post-pandemic barrage of sensory overload.

Watch / share the music video for “When You Say” on YouTube.

While FACS are a heavy band, they don’t necessarily feel like one— Case’s fluttering, melodic guitar lines are buoyed by the insistent, underlying pulse of an expert rhythm section. Bassist Alianna Kalaba, who stepped in for founding member Jonathan Van Herik in 2018, makes her amicable last stand here with the group. Alongside drummer Noah Leger, they dance and twist around each other like a double helix, forming the DNA of what makes FACS so special. Collectively they approach rhythm from outside the groove as opposed to inside it, creating a lattice where Case weaves guitar lines like creeping vines, making the moments on Still Life In Decay where the band locks in even more powerful.

FACS have never been more solidified as a unit, and Still Life In Decay is a decidedly focused effort. The apocalyptic chaos that defined their previous album is waved away in favor of an examination of events with cumbrous clarity. Recorded by Sanford Parker at Chicago’s esteemed Electrical Audio, Still Life In Decay will be available April 7, 2023 from Trouble In Mind Records. Pre-order the record here and see FACS on tour throughout the year. More singles and news coming soon.

FACS, on tour:

April 6 Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club

April 7 Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle

April 8 Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle

May 15 Pittsburgh, PA @ Government Center

May 16 Washington, DC @ DC9

May 17 Philadelphia, PA @ PhilaMOCA

May 19 Providence, RI @ Fete Lounge

May 20 Montreal, QC @ La Sotterenea

May 21 Toronto, ON @ The Garrison

July 28 Indianapolis, IN @ Post. Festival

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[Thanks to Stephanie at Another Side.]

Mephis’ Gonerfest announces initial 2023 lineup.

Gonerfest returns for its 20th edition and to celebrate the 20th anniversary of prominent rock label Goner Records who have shaped punk, garage, soul and beyond for two decades! The gonzo independent music festival hosted by the label and iconic Tennessean storefront takes place in Memphis’ Railgarten from Thursday, September 28 through Sunday, October 1, 2023.

Today, Gonerfest 20 announces its initial lineup which so far includes performances by headliners Osees (Thursday), The Gories (Friday) and The Mummies (Saturday). Spanning genres and generations, Gonerfest 20 will showcase another unique and wide-ranging bill featuring bands, MCs, and DJs from around the world. Highlights include a number of acts coming from overseas, including performances by UK artists Chubby & the Gang and Vivron Vavron, Australian bands CIVIC, Dippers, 1-800-Mikey, TV Repairmann, Vintage Crop and C.O.F.F.I.N., Denmark’s The Courettes, Japan’s The Smog, and Lewsberg from the Netherlands, among others.

Gonerfest 20 tickets go on sale now. Golden Passes, which allow entry to all official GF20 events, are $130. Single-day passes will be available at the door, according to venue capacity. For more information and to purchase tickets, go here.

Since The King Khan & BBQ Show headlined Gonerfest 1 back in January 2005, the festival has grown to become an exciting and eclectic collision of four days of non-stop action that welcomes bands and fans from around the world. With a round-the-clock schedule of official shows, afterparties, art events, and more – at Gonerfest, the concept of community is truly at the heart of the event.

Goner Records’ co-founder Eric Friedl says, “There’s not a whole lot of separation between fans and bands and everything else in Gonerfest. It gives it a different feel, rather than seeing someone up on stage that isn’t interacting with the people at all.”

With the publication of an annual program guide, Gonerfest also works to support local business while promoting the music, arts, and culture of Memphis to its attendees. “Gonerfest has become a rite of passage,” says Goner Records co-owner Zac Ives. “It allows us to showcase our city and celebrate our little part of the music world in front of an extremely wide audience.” More than 1,000 tourists make the pilgrimage to Memphis for Gonerfest, which culminates in a substantial economic impact for its city. Gonerfest attendees eat at locally-owned restaurants like Payne’s BBQ and Cozy Corner, drink Goner-inspired beer brewed at Memphis Made, and visit the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, Graceland, and the National Civil Rights Museum.

GONERFEST 20 INITIAL LINEUP ANNOUNCEMENT INCLUDES:

The Mummies, Osees, The Gories, Marked Men, Chubby & the Gang, Sweeping Promises, Ibex Clone, CIVIC, The Cool Jerks, Bill Orcutt / Chris Corsano, The Courettes, C.O.F.F.I.N, Alien Nosejob, Dippers, Virvon Varvon, Cheater Slicks, Lewsberg, 1-800-Mikey, TV Repairmann, Vintage Crop, The Smog, Laundry Bats, Turnt

Additional artists, DJs, MCs and more TBA!

Over the last two decades, Gonerfest has featured a dazzlingly international array of performers including Jay Reatard, Thee Oh Sees, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Mudhoney, Cobra Man, Lydia Lunch, Wreckless Eric, Simply Saucer, The Black Lips, The Carbonas, Rev. John Wilkins, Negative Approach, Shannon & the Clams, Cosmic Psychos, Amyl & the Sniffers, Robyn Hitchcock, The Mummies, Ty Segall, Fred Lane, The Spits, The Gizmos, Guitar Wolf, and more.

Recalling the first year of Gonerfest, Friedl says, “It was amazing that people wanted to come to Memphis to see this music. The first time I realized we were doing something more than just putting on a show was when we saw this guy from Italy walking down Cleveland Street in the middle of the day. I was like, ‘Okay, if people are willing to come from Italy to watch these bands over a weekend in Memphis, we might be doing something interesting here.’”

More About Goner Records: An independent music label and record store, Goner Records is based in Memphis, Tennessee and co-owned by Eric Friedl and Zac Ives. Goner Records is internationally recognized for its roster of artists including Oblivians, Jay Reatard, The King Khan & BBQ Show, Cobra Man, the Carbonas, NOTS, Ty Segall, and Eddy Current Suppression Ring. Goner Records has been named a top 10 record shop in the U.S. by SPIN and Rolling Stone, and a top 3 independent label by Billboard.

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[Thanks to Bailey at Another Side.]

Spotlights get “Algorithmic” ahead of the release of their new album due April 28, 2023.

Spotlights, the hypnotic trio featuring married couple Mario and Sarah Quintero with Chris Enriquez, release their new album, Alchemy For The Dead, on April 28 via Ipecac Recordings.

The album, written and recorded following the band’s move to Pittsburgh, finds the trio once again balancing the tightrope of light and dark, toying with sonic texture, and as Invisible Oranges described Spotlights’ unique “magic” that’s “flickering with unnamable emotionality.” Mario Quintero shares the band’s mindset while writing and recording Alchemy For The Dead: “Our focus when making this record was to not repeat ourselves. I think we achieved our goal. Though we’re proud of all our releases, making just another ‘Spotlights’ album wasn’t an option. Pushing our own boundaries while creating something cathartic, yet strangely suffocating, with new sounds and textures as well as more personal and self-reflective themes, this album feels like a new fork in the path for us. Hopefully the listeners will follow.”

A preview of the nine-song collection arrives today with the release of the Oleg Rooz- created video for “Algorithmic” (https://youtu.be/19TqHZBUOgY). “For me, the song has a religious theme to it,” Mario adds. “It touches on the story of resurrection and afterlife in this one narrative, while wondering, does any of it really matter?” That narrative, one of death, the resistance and acceptance to one of life’s most secretive aspects, is a lyrical theme throughout Alchemy For The Dead.

Album pre-orders, which include two 2LP vinyl variants: a standard black version and a limited-edition gold edition available exclusively via Ipecac.com and on the band’s upcoming Alchemy For The Dead tour, can be found here: https://spotlights.lnk.to/AFTD. Vinyl is slated for an Aug. 4 release.

Alchemy For The Dead tour:

April 26 Pittsburgh, PA Club Café

April 27 Grand Rapids, MI Pyramid Scheme

April 28 Chicago, IL Subterranean Downstairs

April 29 Tolono, IL Loose Cobra

April 30 St. Louis, MO Red Flag

May 1 Kansas City, MO Mini Bar

May 3 Denver, CO Hi Dive

May 4 Salt Lake City, UT Kilby Court

May 6 Sacramento, CA Club Colonial

May 7 San Francisco, CA Winters Tavern

May 11 Los Angeles, CA Hollywood Palladium*

May 12 San Diego, CA Tower Bar

May 14 Las Vegas, NV House of Blues*

May 16 Denver, CO Mission Ballroom*

May 17 Salt Lake City, UT Union Event Center*

May 19 Seattle, WA Showbox*

May 20 Seattle, WA Showbox*

May 21 Portland, OR Crystal Ballroom*

May 23 Oakland, CA Fox Theater*

May 24 Oakland, CA Fox Theater*

May 27 Denton, TX Dan’s Silverleaf

May 28 Austin, TX Hotel Vegas

May 30 Tulsa, OK Whittier Bar

May 31 Shreveport, LA Bear’s

June 1 Little Rock, AR Mutants Fest

June 2 Nashville, TN Drkmttr

June 3 Atlanta, GA The Earl

June 4 Gainesville, FL The Backyard

June 9 Miami, FL Gramp’s

June 10 Tampa, FL The Orpheum

June 11 Orlando, FL TBA

June 13 Columbia, SC TBA

June 14 Charlotte, NC Snug Harbor

June 15 Asheville, NC The Odd

June 16 Knoxville, TN The Pilot Light

June 17 Louisville, KY Kaiju Bar

June 18 Columbus, OH Big Room Bar

June 21 Harrisonburg, VA The Golden Pony

June 22 Baltimore, MD Metro Gallery

June 23 Philadelphia, PA Ortlieb’s

June 24 Brooklyn, NY Saint Vitus

*-Ipecac Geek Show performances

Birdhands open on dates between April 27 to May 1. Rile open from May 3 to May 6. Dates between May 11 and 24 are the Ipecac Geek Show with labelmates Mr. Bungle and the Melvins.

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[Thanks to Monica at Speakeasy PR.]

“Let Me Count the Ways” you’ll enjoy Love Ethic’s new single.

Pittsburgh trio Love Ethic announce their forthcoming debut album The Thinking Man’s Redux, sharing the first single — a fitting Valentine’s Day tune — “Let Me Count The Ways” via Punk News. Hear “Let Me Count The Ways” HERE. (Direct Bandcamp.)

The influence of punk history on Love Ethic’s music is no secret. The band wields angular texture, guitar eruptions, non-sequitur genre-bending, and an arresting holler from frontman/guitarist The Inevitable Mr. Chris that would fit seamlessly next to their predecessors (e.g. Minutemen, Nomeansno, The Birthday Party, Fugazi, Melvins, etc.)

The ferocity, however, is punctuated by exhalations of pop sensibility, delta moans, and a crooning allure that have attracted a broad mix of listeners to this dynamic music.

The band revived its musical enterprise just over a year ago in its birthplace of Pittsburgh, PA with a young, hungry rhythm section comprised of Anthony Capozzi’s searing drum battery and complex counterpoints provided by bass virtuoso Ethan Zajac-Woodie. Since then, they have quickly garnered glowing attention performing alongside a variety of established groups including Jon Spencer + The Hitmakers, Ed fROMOHIO (of fIREHOSE), Sponge, The Schizophonics, and Beechwood.

Love Ethic has recently completed a reworked album of their early oeuvre engineered/produced by Spotlights (Ipecac) helmsman extraordinaire Mario Quintero and mastered by Seth Manchester of Machines with Magnets studio (METZ/IDLES, Mdou Moctar, Full of Hell), intent on expanding their territory in audiences’ hearts and record collections both domestically and abroad.

The Thinking Man’s Redux will be available on LP, CD and download on April 28th, 2023.

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[Thanks to Dave at US / THEM Group.]

Caroline Rose takes us to “Miami” on their new single.

Caroline Rose announces The Art of Forgetting, their new album out March 24th on New West Records, and presents a new single/video, “Miami.” Rose is an artist known for their wit and satirical storytelling, but for the first time, with The Art of Forgetting, Rose’s music teems with raw, intense emotion. With no guard up this time, they present the type of confessional honesty we’ve only previously caught glimpses of in their work. Of course, Rose’s impish humor does pop up unexpectedly amidst themes of regret and grief, loss and change, shame and the inevitability of pain.

After a series of heartbreaking events, Rose had no desire to make a statement, let alone make a new album. It was a time of contemplation and transformation. What transpired was what Rose considers a gradual union of reconnection and growth. Prompted by a difficult breakup, Rose began a deep-dive inward, unknowingly digging up long-buried childhood experiences. All the while, Rose was getting voicemails from their grandmother “who was clearly losing her mind.” These respective moments are pieced throughout the album, offering moments of lightness amidst an otherwise heart-rending story of a person who has forgotten, and is perhaps re-learning, how to love themselves. “It got me thinking about all the different ways memory shows up throughout our lives,” says Rose. “It can feel like a curse or be wielded as a tool.”

With this in mind, Rose produced the album using devices and media that embody the characteristics of fading or faulty memories. They gravitated towards instruments that naturally changed or decayed over time: wooden and string instruments, voices, tape, and granular synthesis. They began recording basic layers in their home studio, and “from there it was about a year of experimenting with those recordings both at home and in a couple other studios–chopping them up into loops and smears, creating modular percussion, and ultimately building any additional parts around them,” says Rose. Layers of vocal arrangements from Balkan-influenced yawps to Gregorian autotune choirs, acoustic instrumentation chopped and mangled like a glitching memory, and dreamlike synths push and pull to create a hugely dynamic soundscape.

Today’s “Miami” is an acoustic-centered track whose chorus of squealing guitars and bombastic drums seems to all but burst out of the speakers. Rose explains: “I’m not one to shy away from drama, and so this was a perfect opportunity to really bring out every ounce of desperation and anger and all those confusing emotions that happen after a big heartbreak.” Rose sings:

Clean up all the memories
Sweep the bad under the rug
Put the good inside a coffer
I wish I knew anything
‘Cuz even at my best
I don’t know why I even bother

This is the hard part
The part that they don’t tell you about
There is the art of loving
This is the art of forgetting how

The “Miami” video, starring Rose playing a version of themself alongside Massima Bell, was directed by Sam Bennett, and shot at the Austin Motel, Sagebrush, and a sound stage in Austin, and continues Rose’s run of theatrical, storyline driven videos. “For the ‘Miami’ video, I was mainly focused on what would be the most effective way to move people in regards to the two characters and how they interact,” says Rose. “Because this is a sort of loose recreation of some things in my life it was important to me to interpret the feeling of that time as accurately as we could within four minutes’ time. Sam, who is a dear friend of mine and brilliant director, thought a great way to capture that fever-dream-like quality was to create a lot of movement with a continuous shot. He showed me different lenses and cameras to use and we ultimately went with an anamorphic, Old Hollywood-esque feel, which gives it that nostalgia thinking back on a time past.”

Watch Caroline Rose’s Video for “Miami”

“Every time I make an album I’ll come out of it learning a lot about myself,” comments Rose. “Now I look back and see the healing of a wound. I feel like a new version of myself. I think one for the better.”

This spring, Caroline Rose will bring their energetic live show across North America and the UK/EU. Newly-announced dates are on sale Friday at 10am local time and a full list of dates can be found below.
Listen to “Love / Lover / Friend”

Pre-order The Art of Forgetting

The Art of Forgetting Tracklist
1. Love / Lover / Friend
2. Rebirth
3. Miami
4. Better Than Gold
5. Everywhere I Go I Bring the Rain
6. The Doldrums
7. The Kiss
8. Cornbread
9. Stockholm Syndrome
10. Tell Me What You Want
11. Florida Room
12. Love Song For Myself
13. Jill Says
14. Where Do I Go From Here?

Caroline Rose Tour Dates:
(new dates in bold)
Fri. March 31 – Saratoga Springs, NY @ Arthur Zankel Music Center
Sat. April 1 – Montreal, QC @ Petit Campus
Tue. April 4 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground
Wed. April 5 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground
Thu. April 6 – Boston, MA @ Royale
Sat. April 8 – Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
Sun. April 9 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre
Tue. April 11 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
Wed. April 12 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
Fri. April 14 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
Sat. April 15 – Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall
Sun. April 16 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
Tue. April 18 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel
Wed. April 19 – Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl
Fri. April 21 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
Sat. April 22 – Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall Ballroom
Sun. April 23 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
Tue. April 25 – Denver, CO @ The Gothic Theatre
Fri. April 28 – Seattle, WA @ The Showbox
Sat. April 29 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
Wed. May 3 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
Fri. May 5 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theatre
Sat. May 6 – Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy & Harriet’s
Wed. May 31 – Manchester, UK @ BOTW
Thu. June 1 – Dublin, IE @ Whelan’s
Sat. June 3 – Glasgow, UK @ Stereo
Sun. June 4 – Bristol, UK @ Exchange
Mon. June 5 – London, UK @ Heaven

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[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Tanukichan teams up with Enumclaw on “Thin Air.”

In November, Tanukichan announced their sophomore LP GIZMO (out March 3rd via Company Records). A project led by Hannah van Loon, in collaboration with the Grammy-nominated chillwave pioneer Chaz Bear of Toro y Moi, their album is the follow up to their debut LP, Sundays, arelease that saw an enthusiastic response when it was released in 2018, earning praise from outlets like Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, FADER, Stereogum, Loud & Quiet and The AV Club.

The album’s lead single “Don’t Give Up“ was greeted with excitement upon its release, earning best of the week nods from outlets like MTV and Pitchfork, and today Tanukichan are sharing a second single from the album, a track called “Thin Air” that features Aramis Johnson of the Tacoma, Washington band Enumclaw. To coincide with the single’s release van Loon has spoken to Stereogum about the new album.

LISTEN
to Tanukichan’s “Thin Air” feat. Enumclaw
HERE

READ
Stereogum’s Interview w/ Tanukichan
HERE

“This song is about exes, some people that I really cared about but ultimately didn’t want to be with,” van Loon explains. “The sadness I feel when I’m hurting someone, and missing them and knowing you won’t ever have that closeness again. It’s about how important they are and how much they’ve taught me, or helped me, but how I also know that people come and go. The chorus has a double meaning for me where I feel like I can’t prioritize relationships because I need to keep on focusing on myself. The other is feeling like I’m broken and keep ending up with the wrong people, and hurting them.”

——–

GIZMO is named after van Loon’s, who became a much-needed companion while the Bay Area musician wrote her second album as the pandemic began. The album is an exercise in release, whether from situational hindrances — a forced lockdown, for one — or from self-imposed hedonistic coping mechanisms. “A theme I always had floating around was escape,” van Loon explains of her follow-up to 2018’s Sundays. “Escaping from myself, my problems, sadness and cycles.”

To channel the more uplifting spirit she wanted for GIZMO, van Loon turned to the radio pop-rock of her childhood: “I was struck by the in-your-face positivity of the lyrics,” she adds, referencing artists like 311, The Cranberries, and Tom Petty. “I wanted to bring that positivity while writing about the sad and helpless emotions I’d been grappling with.”

This new found positivity and interesting blend of influences are in evidence on “Don’t Give Up,” a nu metal-meets-Cocteau Twins groove that deals with the experience of trying to overcome imposter syndrome, as van Loon explains:

“This song is about feeling I haven’t done anything with my life, but also knowing that I’ve accomplished a lot and it’s only getting better. I started writing the lyrics when I was on tour opening for the Drums after my first album came out. We were playing sold out shows in front of hundreds of people, but I knew it could change in an instant. I felt like I hit rock bottom emotionally, I wasn’t ready for the road and it killed me. I felt so disconnected from the band even though they were my backbone and were making it happen. The only thing that really helps me at that point is feeling like I can just let everything go, and we all die. Just accepting the fact that I can’t control anything and that in the end it doesn’t matter. We will all disappear. I wrote the chorus years later when I was finishing a bunch of the songs. I didn’t want it to be depressing, even though that’s where it came from. It came from giving up but I wanted to keep going. I wanted it to mean something moving on from the negative and I came up with a ridiculously positive chorus. Don’t give up now you know there’s another day, just know you’re going to get to a better place, a better place meaning a better place in life, or “heaven,” just nothingness where all your worries are gone.”

GIZMO will be released on Company Records on March 3rd. It is available for preorder/presave here.

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[Thanks to Tom at Hive Mind PR.]

The Jackets explore the “Misery of Man” ahead of their upcoming tour.

December 2022 saw the announcement of Wild Noise Records and its debut vinyl release from The Jackets with the single “Pie In The Sky.” Today, the single’s B-side “Misery of Man” is premiering via Vive Le Rock in addition to a slew of European tour dates beginning this month.

Hear “Misery of Man” through Vive Le Rock

Chris Rosales explains the context behind the songwriting. “Misery of Man” is a song about humans’ strongest feelings and how overwhelming they can be for good or evil. Pain, fear, love, hate; these emotions can guide us into strange and sometimes perilous directions. This is Man’s misery – our misery and dealing with these emotions can seldom be simple. (Chris Rosales – 2023)
“Pie In The Sky/”Misery of Man” is The Jacket’s follow-up to their acclaimed Queen Of The Pill album and one of two confirmed 7″ releases for 2023. A cross-continental production, the band entered Shirt-Off Studio in Bern with Sebastian Zwahlen to helm the recording process and enlisting notable Detroit producer Jim Diamond to handle the mixing and mastering process. The artwork is the creation of the Bucharest-based animator Andy “Sinboy” Luke.

Since Queen of the Pill‘s release, The Jackets have maintained momentum through tours across the European Union, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and Mexico. No strangers to the European festival circuit as well, crowds that have witnessed the band’s aerodynamic and raucous live spectacle include Funtastic Dracula (ES), Cosmic Trip (FR), Purple Weekend (ES), Festival Beat (IT), EuroYeyé (ES), and Hipsville A Go Go (UK).

“Pie In The Sky” is available digitally through all digital service providers and will be released on vinyl in March 2023 via Wild Noise Records. Pre-orders are available here.

The Jackets Upcoming Tour Dates

February 9th: Blah Blah (Turin, IT)
February 10th: Cloud 9 Weekender (Rimini, IT)
February 11th: Joshua Blues (Como, IT)
March 1st: Rössli (Bern, CH) w/Nestter Donuts + DJ Bone
March 2nd: Schüür (Lucerne, CH) w/Nestter Donuts + DJ Bone
March 3rd: Cafe Mokka (Thun, CH) w/Nestter Donuts + DJ Bone
March 4th: Amboss Rampe (Zürich, CH) w/Nestter Donuts + DJ Bone
March 30th: Irrsinn Bar (Basel, CH)
March 31st: Gaswerk (Winterthur, CH)
April 14th: Wild Weekend (Mallorca, ES) w/Reverend Beat-Man, Holly Golightly, The Sex Organs, The Brood, The Stompin’ Riffraff, and more.

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[Thanks to Matthew at Shattered Platter PR.]

Review: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava

You might expect King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard‘s album Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava to start out with some sort of massive cosmic metal track when you look at the album’s cover, but KGATLW are well-known for doing the unexpected, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the album starts off with a groovy, saxophone-tooting jam track (“Mycelium”) instead.

It’s a big jam album. The whole thing was recorded in a week with almost no planning. The band started each track with a tempo, a title, and a key signature. That’s it. They’d just improvise on those things for a few hours, and then frontman Stuart Mackenzie would later go back and arrange the jams into songs, and the band would write lyrics to fit them. Yeah, it’s nuts, but it’s just the kind of thing KGATLW love to do (and make look easy).

“Ice V” (pronounced “Ice Five”) is one of the best cuts on the record. It’s a snappy psych-funk song about aliens, crop circles, and other cosmic entities that’s helped along by Michael Cavanagh‘s wickedly tight snare hits. The subtle use of Ambrose Kenny-Smith‘s saxophone in the background is another nice touch.

“Magma” dips a bit into the cosmic rock you expect from the album cover, and it also dips into the band’s love of microtonal instrumentation. “Lava”is a psychedelic trip that ripples and flows like its namesake as Mackenzie sings about life and death and what can represent each.

“Hell’s Itch” is the longest track on the album at over thirteen minutes (which can be considered a warm-up for KGATLW by this point in their career). It floats along (and fills your lungs) like a playful butterfly (3000) along some muddy water and each band member gets time to shine. “Iron Lung” sounds like a lost 1970s crime film soundtrack cut with Joey Walker‘s bass work, and then a krautrock jam when the guitar solo blasts through your speakers. “Gilese 710” tackles one of KGATLW’s favorite subjects – the environment (and what we’ve been doing to it for decades). It’s wild, slightly heavy, and seems to be all over the place while actually keeping within a tight structure. Imagine Captain Beefheart started a krautrock band and you’ll get the idea.

It’s an album that shouldn’t work (“Let’s just jam a lot based on a tempo, key, and title, and we’ll figure it out later.”), but it does quite well. The level of talent in KGATLW is baffling, they sell out shows all over the world, and yet so many people say, “Who?” when you mention them. I think they like it that way.

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Bodywash release “Massif Central” from upcoming album, “I Held the Shape While I Could.”

Bodywash — the Montreal duo of Chris Steward and Rosie Long Decter — announces its new album,
I Held the Shape While I Could, out April 14th on Light Organ Records, and shares the lead single/video, “Massif Central.” Over I Held the Shape While I Could’s twelve tracks, Steward and Long Decter reflect on their separate and shared experiences of losing a sense of place, the way something once solid can slip between your fingers, and their attempts to build something new from the fallout. On lead single “Massif Central,” stark guitars and relentless drums accompany Steward’s whispered vocals as he recounts an experience of bureaucratic purgatory: a typo in a government letter caused Steward to lose his legal work status in Canada.

“After eight years living in Canada, in the Spring of 2021, a government clerical error caused me to lose my legal status here,” Steward explains. “As a UK national, I lost my right to work. My savings trickled away during months where I could do little but pace the corners of my apartment. I was prepared to pack my bags and leave as the life I’d hoped to construct for myself seemed to vanish into a bureaucratic abyss.”

“‘Massif’ is the sound of wailing into a cliff and not knowing if you’ll hear an echo,” continued Steward. “The spoken word is inspired by a squirrel that was trapped in the wall behind my bed, clawing its way to salvation. With the help of friends, family, music, and a few immigration lawyers (and the rest of my savings), I’m now a permanent resident here. But this song remains as testament to my experience with an exploitative institution.”

The accompanying video by Jordan Allen is a stunning collage of live footage, distorted visuals, and eerie graphics. “With ‘Massif Central,’ we wanted to encapsulate the panic and urgency that Chris experienced, and have the abstracts portray the anxiety and hopelessness one can feel at the hands of bureaucracy,” Allen adds. “I chose graphics that heavily leaned into feelings of being lost in a maze, with towering structures and horizon lines pulling you into them. The idea was that the camera would be both a CCTV view of the band, but also glitching to reveal the more emotionally internal visual aspects.”

Watch “Massif Central”
Steward and Long Decter met in college in 2014, but didn’t immediately share a musical language. Chris grew up in London listening to British dream pop and classic shoegaze; Rosie was raised in Toronto on folk and Canadiana. Working toward their own blend of airy vocals, intricate guitar work and atmospheric synths, they released their debut EP as Bodywash in 2016 and their first full-length, Comforter, in 2019.

As they prepared to release Comforter, Long Decter and Steward both experienced alienating shifts in their personal lives, leading to a mutual sense of dislocation. They began writing new material that was darker, more experimental, and at the same time more invigorating than the soothing dream pop on Comforter. In 2021 they took these songs into the studio, sharing them with longtime drummer RyanWhite and recording/mixing engineer Jace Lasek (Besnard Lakes). The resulting I Held the Shape While I Could is a record that lives in the sonics of decay and renewal: breaks that burst forth from a squall of fuzz guitars, drones that glitch and stutter like ice willing itself to thaw.

There are many places like home, and on I Held the Shape While I Could, home is a mutable thing; a location that is fixed until it isn’t. Across the record, Steward’s abstract guitars and Long Decter’s cascading vocals act as ambient throughlines, blurring the digital and organic, gesturing toward something intangible, just out of reach. Home is a process — the back and forth of guitar riffs and vocal hums, of files sent and received across the ocean. A world imagined and sculpted together.

Pre-order I Held the Shape While I Could

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

shame show off their “Six-Pack” with their new single.

Today, shame — the UK-based quintet led by frontman Charlie Steen — unveil “Six-Pack,” the new single/video from Food for Worms, their new album out February 24th on Dead Oceans. Quickly becoming a fan favorite during the band’s recent live sets, “Six-Pack” is shame at their punchiest and most pulsating. Following lead single “Fingers Of Steel,” “Six-Pack” sees shame enter a new, surreal landscape, as reflected in Food for Worms’ cover artwork designed by acclaimed artist Marcel Dzama. It’s suggestive of what is left unsaid, what lies beneath the surface, the farcical and fantastical everyday that we are living in, a society where both everything and nothing is possible.

On “Six-Pack,” Steen adds: “‘Six-Pack’ is essentially the opposite of a Room 101; instead it’s a room where all your wildest desires can come true and will be showered upon you. Be it commodities, self-obsession, foods and B-lister celebrities, it’ll all be there if you want it to. You’ve done time behind bars and now you’re making time in-front of them. It’s time to make up for anything you’ve lost or wasted, it’s time to get it all.”

“Six-Pack” arrives alongside a video directed by Gilbert Bannerman and animated by Cyrus Hayley, featuring a warped reinvention of Napoleon befitting of New Year’s resolution season. Bannerman explains: “The idea was to make a parody of a middle aged bloke thinking he’s a king for going to the gym once. I read a lot about Napoleon and thought it would be a laugh to make it about him. The style comes from trying to make my youth spent playing PS1 not entirely wasted.”

WATCH SHAME’S “SIX-PACK” VIDEO

On one hand, shame’s new album Food for Worms calls to mind a certain morbidity, but on the other, it’s a celebration of life; the way that, in the end, we need each other. Food for Worms is an ode to friendship, and a documentation of the dynamic that only five people who have grown up together — and grown so close, against all odds — can share.

It’s through this, and defiance, that shame have continually moved forward together; finding light in uncomfortable contradictions and playing their vulnerabilities as strengths: the near breakdowns, identity crises, Steen routinely ripping his shirt off on-stage as a way of tackling his body weight insecurities. Everything is thrown into their live show, and the best shows of their lives are happening now.

Now they arrive, finally, at a place of hard-won maturity. Enter: Food for Worms, which Steen declares to be “the Lamborghini of shame records.”

WATCH SHAME’S “FINGERS OF STEEL” VIDEO

PRE-ORDER FOOD FOR WORMS

shame Tour Dates (New Dates in Bold)
Tue. Feb. 28 – Dublin, IE @ Button Factory
Wed. Mar. 1 – Dublin, IE @ Button Factory
Fri. Mar. 3 – Glasgow, UK @ SWG3
Sat. Mar. 4 – Newcastle, UK @ Boiler Shop
Sun. Mar. 5 – Leeds, UK @ Stylus
Tue. Mar. 7 – Sheffield, UK @ Leadmill
Wed. Mar. 8 – Liverpool, UK @ Invisible Wind Factory
Thu. Mar. 9 – Bristol, UK @ SWX
Sat. Mar. 11 – Manchester, UK @ New Century Hall
Sun. Mar. 12 – Cardiff, UK @ Tramshed
Tue. Mar. 14 – Nantes, FR @ Stereolux
Wed. Mar. 15 – Paris, FR @ Cabaret Sauvage
Thu. Mar. 16 – Bordeaux, FR @ Rock School Barbey
Sat. Mar. 18 – Lisbon, PT @ LAV
Sun. Mar. 19 – Madrid, ES @ Nazca
Mon. Mar. 20 – Barcelona, ES @ La 2 de Apolo
Wed. Mar. 22 – Nimes, FR @ Paloma
Thu. Mar. 23 – Milan, IT @ Magnolia
Fri. Mar. 24 – Zurich, CH @ Plaza
Sun. Mar. 26 – Munich, DE @ Technikum
Mon. Mar. 27 – Berlin, DE @ Astra
Tue. Mar. 28 – Hamburg, DE @ Markthalle
Thu. Mar. 30 – Oslo, NO @ Vulkan
Fri. Mar. 31 – Stockholm, SE @ Debaser
Sat. Apr. 1 – Copenhagen, DK @ VEGA
Tue. Apr. 4 – Cologne, DE @ Floria
Wed. Apr. 5 – Brussels, BE @ AB
Thu. Apr. 6 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg
Fri. Apr. 28 – London, UK @ Brixton Academy
Sat. May 6 – Atlanta, GA @ Shaky Knees Festival
Sun. May 7 – Nashville, TN @ Basement East *
Tue. May 9 – Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle *
Wed. May 10 – Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall *
Fri. May 12 – Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar *
Sat. May 13 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer *
Sun. May 14 – Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw *
Tue. May 16 – Boston, MA @ The Sinclair *
Thu. May 18 – Montréal, QC @ Foufounes Électriques
Fri. May 19 – Ottawa, ON @ Club SAW
Sat. May 20 – Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace
Mon. May 22 – Kalamazoo, MI @ Bell’s Eccentric Cafe *
Wed. May 24 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall *
Fri. May 26 – St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway *
Sat. May 27 – Lawrence, KS @ The Bottleneck *
Sun. May 28 – Fayetteville, AR @ George’s Majestic Lounge *
Tue. May 30 – Dallas,TX @ Granada Theater *
Fri. Jun. 2 – Austin, TX @ The Scoot Inn *
Sat. Jun. 3 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall *
Sun. Jun. 4 – New Orleans, LA @ Toulouse Theatre *

* w/ Been Stellar

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]