Wild, weird, and wonderful, Gustaf put on a fun late afternoon set under the Angers sun. You could tell they were having a great time. I spoke with Lydia Gammill after the set and she told me they still couldn’t quite believe they’d just played a set in France.
This was the second time I’d seen Death Valley Girls in the same year, with the first being at Levitation France just two months prior. This set was more up close and personal (which is every show at Chicago’s Empty Bottle) and a bit more dangerous to boot. Lead singer Bonnie Bloomgarden delighted in walking out into the crowd to sing and mingle with fans.
Speaking of dangerous shows, Warm Drag‘s set at Levitation Austin was sexy and deadly, not unlike a panther. Blending dark electro with sultry vocals, the set had a lot of people grooving and trembling at the same time.
This was the second time I saw Automatic last year. Yes, the first time was in France in June. The trio had only improved in that short time, and they wowed the Austin crowd. The number of Automatic band shirts and tote bags we saw after their set was extensive.
This short set from Welsh power trio The Joy Formidable packed more wallop than most sets I saw from other bands that were twice as long. They were so fierce that lead singer / guitarist Ritzy Bryan headbutted bassist Rhydian Daffyd in the chest twice during the set.
Who’s in the top 15? Well, you’ll have to come back tomorrow to find out!
2022 was a great year for electronic music, and this EP from Adam BFD was among the best pieces of EDM I heard. It thumps from beginning to end and should be in every DJ’s toolbox.
Another album that blends electro well (with dream-pop in this case), is Primer’s Incubator. It’s a fun listen, even though a lot of it is about a break-up.
16: BODEGA – Broken Equipment
I think it’s a guarantee that anything released by Brooklyn post-bunkers BODEGA is going to end up in my top 20 of any year. Broken Equipment was another solid album from them, with great beats and sharp, biting lyrics about everything from consumerism to British disaster movies.
Who’s in the top 15? Come back tomorrow to find out!
It’s time for a look back at my top live shows of last year. I saw 51 bands last year, some of them multiple times, and a good amount of them at the Levitation Austin and Levitation France music festivals. Here’s the start of the list…
25. The Well – Levitation Austin / Antone’s – October 29th
The Well are one of the best doom bands out there right now, and their live shows never disappoint. They were damn loud in Antone’s and walloped the place with thundering sound. They also played some new material, which bodes well for a new album from them in the future.
24. The Psychedelic Furs – Andrew J. Bird Music Center / Cincinnati – July 20th
My friend described the venue as “the Borg Cube of music venues,” but the Furs filled the place with gorgeous sound, playing a good mix of old and new material. Richard Butler sounded as good as ever and everyone on the band was clicking.
#23. The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Levitation France – June 05th
“You don’t need more drugs, sir, you need better drugs. If you had better drugs, you’d be mellowed out and not yelling.” Those words from band leader Anton Newcombe pretty much summed up the trippy feel of their set to close the 2022 Levitation France music festival.
#22. La Femme – Levitation Austin / Stubb’s – October 30th
Sexy, sweaty, sizzling, and super, this set from the French quintet had the Stubb’s crowd go from, “What is happening?” to “Wow! This is amazing!” by the end. The whole place was bouncing and even yelling back French lyrics they didn’t understand.
#21: Pelada – Levitation France – June 04th
Booked somewhat at the last minute for the 2022 Levitation France music festival, Pelada closed the Scène Elevation (Elevation Stage) one night to a gobsmacked crowd who was bowled over by their fierce industrial-tinged electro. Everyone was in their hands for the entire set, and everyone left with a crush on singer Chris Vargas.
Who makes the top 20? Come back tomorrow to find out!
Proving once again that “power trio” isn’t just a descriptive handle from the distant past, but a louder-than-God 21st Century reality, New York’s Skull Practitioners release their first full-length album, Negative Stars, for In the Red Records on January 20th. The album is the second release for Los Angeles-based In the Red by the trio — guitarist Jason Victor, bassist Kenneth Levine, and drummer Alex Baker, following the band’s acclaimed EP, Death Buy, issued in 2019.
Previously, Victor had established himself as the dazzling co-lead guitarist for Steve Wynn and the Miracle Three -when Wynn revived his ‘80s L.A. Paisley Underground consortium The Dream Syndicate in 2017, Victor took the guitar chair previously occupied by Karl Precoda and PaulCutler. Levine was playing in DBCR, a three-piece unit. “We wanted to go to a five-piece, and needed a drummer and another guitar player,” he says. “We put an ad out on Craigslist and met Jason and Alex that way. Alex was just two weeks into living in New York. We played together for a while, and then it just sort of dissolved. Jason, Alex, and I actually had more of a shared, common musical perspective, and the three of us decided, ‘Let’s stick together with just us three.’”
Skull Practitioners recorded a limited cassette-only debut, st1, which they self-released in 2014. The four-song collection, on which Baker was the lone band member to take a vocal, marked the start of a long hunt for the right voice. “We kept looking for a new singer, and that person never came,” says Victor. “None of us wanted to sing at all. After a while, we had been together as a three-piece for so long that we had our thing, and it became difficult for someone to fit into it. So we pulled a Genesis! The best thing about it is that now all three of us will sing, and that takes the pressure off just one of us.” Levine adds, “Whoever writes, sings. It’s their expression, so they should say what they have to say.”
On Negative Stars, Levine performs “Dedication” and “What Now,” and Victor sings “Exit Wounds,” “Leap,” “Intruder,” and “Ventilation.” The album’s expansive instrumental tracks are “Fire Drill” and Skull Practitioners’ longtime club highlight “Nelson D,” which first appeared on st1 in a live version. You can hear a multitude of influences coming off each other in Skull Practitioners’ music, ranging from TheGun Club to Sonic Youth to Joy Division, Black Flag, and beyond. Each player brings something uniquely his own to the mix.
“Black Flag was huge for me,” says Victor. “There is that element of improv, and of aggression, that I was attracted to in that band. With our band, there’s definitely an aggressive angle there, and absolutely an improvisational one. We’re all willing to give everyone the space for contributing ideas. This band really does function as a democracy, which is nice.” Levine adds, “All of us were into different things, and there’s some kind of overlap and we kind of influence each other, and there’s stuff that we turn each other on to.”
Everything on Negative Stars coheres so seamlessly, but like with so many others, its recording was hampered, and protracted, by the COVID-19 pandemic.“The main album session was a few years ago,” Baker says. “That was when we went into the studio for a couple of days with our friend, engineer Ted Young, and we tracked the bulk of the album there. We recorded the instrumental parts first, then started vocal tracking in January of 2021. It took us so long to decide that all the instruments were done at that point. The vocals were actually done at our practice space. We just set up the mics and did that ourselves.”
Levine adds, “The record was in mid-flight, and then the pandemic hit, so we were just sitting around for six months or a year, and we said, ‘Well, we may never finish this.’ So we wound up literally sitting in a room with masks on during most of the vocal tracking. If we’d waited to go into a real studio, it would have come out even later. Alex did all the engineering on that, and we’re very appreciative of all his engineering prowess.”
With their album finally complete and the pandemic lifting, Skull Practitioners have begun to take to the stage more regularly: they have opened shows for Lydia Lunch, Hammered Hulls, Live Skull, and In the Red label mates the Wolfmanhattan Project (Kid Congo Powers, Mick Collins, and Bob Bert). They plan to get on the road in the near future.
Says Levine, “I think the band is represented at its best in a live setting. That’s where we’re in our element. Playing live, we’re out for blood.” Victor adds, “With the live thing, we just want to destroy, in the nicest, most friendly way — we’re nice people. Someone said about us, ‘These guys look like a bunch of accountants.’ People don’t really know what to expect before they hear us. I think they’re all a little surprised, maybe, and we like having that element of surprise — ‘We’re gonna blow your minds a little.’”
Greg Puciato, who has released both his critically-acclaimed debut and sophomore solo albums in the short span of two years, has set a Dec. 20 release date for his inaugural live album, 11/11/22 Los Angeles.
“You don’t get many first shows,” says Puciato of his Nov. 11 outing at Los Angeles’ Don Quixote. “Having the ability to properly document one and get high quality audio and video…I didn’t wanna regret not doing that. It’s gonna be killer to look back at this 100 or even five shows from now and see how much further along the live versions of these songs are. When I hear these recordings, I instantly feel transported to that room, that night, with my bandmates onstage and friends and everyone there in attendance. A lot of love and support and passion and hard work and talent in the room. I hope it does the same for you if you were there, and resonates as strongly for people who weren’t able to attend. I can’t wait to do more of this and see everyone again and more of you in other places down the line.”
A preview of the 11-song collection arrives today with the Jim Louvau and Tony Aguilera directed video for “Deep Set (Live)” (https://youtu.be/6U3IGUQmV1o). Puciato noted: “’Deep Set’ feels good to lead with. One of my favorite memories of the tracking of Child Soldier: Creator of God were the vocals to this song…incidentally recorded at the same time of year as this show. The song was always meant to feel loose and live; the recorded vocal was a front-to-back one-take that we did in a shed in Nick Rowe’s (producer and live guitarist) backyard…so bringing it to life onstage with him, and Chris (Hornbrook) for the first time felt like a nice, symbolic full circle.”
11/11/22 Los Angeles will be available exclusively via Bandcamp, with the album streaming on Dec. 20, and vinyl pre-orders launching the same day. The collection will arrive on additional streaming services following its vinyl release in the Spring.
Joining Puciato for the live performance, and featured in this video, are the aforementioned Nick Rowe (guitar), Chris Hornbrook (drums), James Hammontree (guitar), and Jeff “Manwolf” Geiser (bass).
Having just completed shows in the UK, Ireland, Europe and North America playing select dates and as main support to The Lemonheads, Bass Drum Of Death (John and JIm Barrett, Ian Kirkpatrick) announce a US headline tour beginning February 8th, in support of their forthcoming album, Say I Won’t, released January 27th via Fat PossumRecords.
The band have revealed three tracks/videos from the album so far; the Zeppelin-esque ‘Head Change’, the midtempo bruiser ‘Say Your Prayers‘ (a collaboration with Mike Kerr of Royal Blood) and the hi-octane ‘Find It‘ (the video features live footage from the band’s sold out New York show in June of this year). Today, to accompany the tour announcement, they share a blistering live version of ‘Head Change’, to give a taste of what to expect on the road.
Say I Won’t is the first Bass Drum of Death album written, demoed, and recorded with the touring band, instead of bandleader John Barrett doing everything on his own. He found a freedom in working with collaborators that wasn’t available to him before, opening different aspects of the songwriting. It was a process of live recording, layering on different parts and overdubs, and then stripping it all back to the bones of the song, keeping the raw wild heart of the music intact. “My first two records were made entirely by me alone with my gear, my laptop, and a Snowball USB mic,” says Barrett. “They were just made quickly, cheaply, as an excuse to tour. I wanted to take my time with this record. Make something good that I was proud of in itself.”
The band recorded the new record with Patrick Carney of The Black Keys at Audio Eagle Studios in Nashville and the result is a groove-oriented, 1970’s-indebted collection of rock songs, with tempos set for cruising and scuzzy guitars galore. There’s an energy and vitality to the music that feels in line with the best of the Bass Drum songs, but with an added boost that comes from new bandmates and a new perspective.
The albumfinds a reinvigorated Barrett firing at all cylinders, backed by his best band yet. It’s Bass Drum of Death at their loosest and scuzziest and most tuneful, a true rock record in all the right ways. It’s a throwback by way of moving forward, sporting a maturity and swagger that comes from a decade of playing music on the road and surviving to tell about it. More than anything, Say I Won’t is a blast to listen to, music built for driving with your stereo cranked.
2023 dates are below – tickets can be found on the band’s website.
The epic Mosswood Meltdown is returning July 1st and July 2nd, 2023 to Oakland’s Mosswood Park. Today, the festival announces its first wave of the lineup, which features Le Tigre for their only Bay Area appearance of the year, Gravy Train!!!!, The Rondelles, and Tina & the Total Babes for their exclusive, only shows of 2023, Quintron & Miss Pussycat, and more. And of course, it wouldn’t be a Mosswood Meltdown without our iconic and punkeriffic host, John Waters. The lineup thus far can be found below and early bird tickets for the festival (for a holiday special pricing) are on sale this Friday at 9am PST/noon EST.
MOSSWOOD MELTDOWN 2023 TEASER Le Tigre (1st Bay Area gig in 15 years!) Gravy Train!!!! (Only gig 2022/2023) Tina & the Total Babes (Only gig 2022/2023) The Rondelles (Only gig 2022/2023) Quintron & Miss Pussycat
Austin band Holy Water share the first single single today from their forthcoming self-titled debut album via Metal Injection. Hear and share “Waterest Him With Tears” HERE. (Direct Bandcamp)
Heavy music is experiencing a renaissance of innovation and creativity, while most of contemporary music genres have stagnated in recent years.
Case in point: Holy Water, a powerful new step merging heavy doom guitars, stoic experimentalists like Caspar Brötzmann Massaker and Khanate mixed with early 80s proto-industrial sounds like Psychic TV and The Leather Nun, metalgaze melodies and hints of Wovenhand’s gothic folk. Yes, that’s a wide range of styles, but it shows just how deftly Holy Water, the nom-de-tune of vocalist/guitarist Jasper den Hartigh cuts its own sonic space.
Jasper den Hartigh was previously a member of critically praised New Orleans post-punk band Heat Dust, which released a handful of recordings on The Flenser label and toured with Thou and The Body.
Holy Water’s 11-song eponymous album was self-recorded in 2021, at home and at den Hartigh’s Austin rehearsal space. Help on drums came from Andrew Stevens, guitar from Neckbolt’s Ben Krause, and vocals from den Hartigh’s wife, Sarah Contey.
“The album came after an extensive creativity exercise I did called Compost-Turn,” den Hartigh explains. “In which I put out 7 releases from friends and myself as physical bookmarks. When it came time to work on a self-titled solo project, this helped the songs appear rapidly. This album was my attempt at making a pop-record, while trusting my gut, using lessons learned over the course of my entire musical life. From being in punk bands, to playing slowcore, to ambient noise, and heavy metal. The songs all have references to Dutch fairy tales but also contain more personal writing.”
Holy Water will be available on cassette and digital on February 3rd, 2023, LP to follow in summer. Cassette preorders via Primal Architecture, digital via Bandcamp and LP via Time Release.
The Psychedelic Furs came back strong in 2020 with Made of Rain, their first album of new material since 1991’s World Outside. Richard Butler‘s voice and songwriting hadn’t lost a step and the rest of the band had plenty of pent-up pandemic energy to release.
“The Boy That Invented Rock & Roll” launches the album with shoegaze guitars and Richard Butler singing about himself to some degree (The Furs are one of the most influential UK post-punk bands still going.) and probably about others he’s seen in his long career who burned out (“the suicidal drunk dance, the sense that things will fall apart”) too soon. “Don’t Believe” has stadium-level grandeur with its expansive sound courtesy of Rich Good‘s guitars.
“When the new black is white and the new lows are high, in the ticking of the time, you’ll be mine,” Richard Butler sings on “You’ll Be Mine” – a gorgeous track with string instruments, alto saxophone work from Mars Williams, and celestial synths from Amanda Kramer. The chorus increases in power every time Butler sings it. Speaking of Butler’s power, it’s on full display on “Wrong Train” – a song about walking away from a relationship and the mixed emotions that come with it. “This’ll Never Be Like Love” continues this theme.
Paul Garisto‘s drums on “Ash Wednesday” seem all over the place but are actually loaded with highly technical fills. “Come All Ye Faithful” isn’t a cover of the traditional Christmas song, but rather a bit of a goth track, as is “No-One,” which has some Cure-like guitars behind Tim Butler‘s heavy, growling bass. A harpsichord plays the role of clock chimes on “Tiny Hands” – a song that seems to be about how time often gets away from us before we realize it’s gone.
“Hide the medicine from the kids,” Butler sings on “Hide the Medicine,” a sad tale of someone trying to hide their depression from their children hidden in a lush rock song. “Turn Your Back on Me” is just as lovely, with Good’s guitars seeming to echo from the back of a workshop behind the studio. “Stars” starts slow and then builds into a big, screeching song that drops out in a quick distorted plunge.
The Psychedelic Furs had a lot to get out of their heads when making this record, and the end result is a fine piece of work.
Today, shame announce Food for Worms, their explosive new album out February 24th on Dead Oceans, and present its lead single/video, “Fingers of Steel.” In conjunction, the band announces their biggest headlining tour to-date, with stops in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Chicago and more. Following 2021’s Drunk Tank Pink, “the sound of a band stretching into new shapes” (Pitchfork), shame finally arrive at a place of hard-won maturity on Food for Worms, which frontman Charlie Steendeclares to be “the Lamborghini of shame records.”
Food for Worms marks a sonic departure from anything they’ve done before, and – for the first time – the band are not delving inwards, but seeking to capture the world around them. Abandoning their post-punk beginnings for far more eclectic influences, Food for Worms draws from the sharp yet uncomplicated lyrical observations of Lou Reed, as well as the more melodic works of 90s German band Blumfeld. They called upon renowned producer Flood (Nick Cave, U2, PJ Harvey) to execute their vision. “I don’t think you can be in your own head forever,” says Steen. A conversation after one of their gigs with a friend prompted a stray thought that he held onto: “It’s weird, isn’t it? Popular music is about love, heartbreak, or yourself. There isn’t much about your mates.”
The “Fingers of Steel” video, directed by James Humby, sees the band work 19-hour shifts creating fake social media accounts to like, follow, and comment on their own material. Of the video,Steen says: “Self-obsession, social media flagellation and death can all be seen in this Oscar-nominated performance. No one’s ever done a video like this before and when you watch it, you’ll see why. Think Casablanca, but in color, and better.”
On one hand, 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. The album 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.
Back in 2018, around debut album Songs of Praise, shame were at the vanguard of a transformative scene that changed the underground music landscape in the UK; paving the way for artists soon to come. Then, Steen suffered a series of panic attacks which led to the tour’s cancellation. For the first time, since being plucked from the small pub stages of south London and catapulted into notoriety, shame were confronted with who they’d become on the other side of it. This era, of being forced to endure reality and the terror that comes with your own company, would form shame’s second album, Drunk Tank Pink.
Reconnecting with what they first loved about being in a band hotwired them into making the album after a false-start during the pandemic. Their management then presented them with a challenge: in three weeks, shame would play two intimate shows and debut two sets of entirely new songs. It meant the band returned to the same ideology which propelled them to these heights in the first place: the love of playing live, on their own terms, fed by their audience. Thus Food for Worms crashed into life faster than anything they’d created before. The band recorded while playing festivals all over Europe, invigorated by the strength of the reaction their new material was met with. That live energy, what it’s like to witness shame in their element, is captured perfectly on record – like lightning in a bottle.
Food for Worms sees shame enter a new, surreal landscape, as reflected in the cover art 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, in a society where both everything and nothing is possible. Recording each track live meant a kind of surrender: here, the rough edges give the album its texture; the mistakes are more interesting than perfection. In a way, it harkens back to the title itself and the way that with this record, the band are embracing frailty and, by doing so, are tapping into a new source of bravery.
It’s through this, and defiance, that the band have continually moved forward together; finding light in uncomfortable contractions and playing their vulnerabilities as strengths. The near-breakdowns, identity crises, Steel routinely ripping his top 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.
Food for Worms Tracklist 1. Fingers Of Steel 2. Six-Pack 3. Yankees 4. Alibis 5. Adderall 6. Orchid 7. The Fall of Paul 8. Burning By Design 9. Different Person 10. All The People
shame Tour Dates 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 Mon. Apr. 3 – Brussels, BE @ AB Tue. Apr. 4 – Cologne, DE @ Floria Thu. Apr. 6 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg Fri. Apr. 28 – London, UK @ Brixton Academy 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
