New wave / No wave – Page 2

The Serfs invite us to “Club Deuce” on their new single.

Cincinnati punks The Serfs, Trouble in Mind’s newest signing, announce their third album, Half Eaten By Dogs, out October 27th. It’s their best album yet, putting a decidedly Midwestern spin on the modernist twitch of future-forward bands like Total Control or Cold Beat, as well as the post-industrialist dance floor grime of Skinny Puppy, Dark Day, This Heat, and Factrix. Anyone paying attention can see that Cincinnati is a very real hotbed of musical creativity at the moment, and The Serfs – Dylan McCartney (vocals, percussion, guitar, bass, electronics), Dakota Carlyle (electronics, bass, guitar, vocals) and Andie Luman (vocals, synths) – are undeniably near the center of the city’s neu-underground scene. They are a deliberately nebulous and incidentally industrialist gang of dance-floor hymners – tranced-out troubadours whose sound and musical ideology seems to be a causal manifestation of their immediate environments.

Half Eaten By Dogs is a wide-eyed look through a scope into a heathenish vision, where ice-encrusted synth harmonies command oozing chemical rhythms and drilled-out elemental rock formations. There’s a psychedelic melancholy to it, in both the abstract lyrical sense, with doomed proclamations of natural and supernatural disasters, and the more tangible musical sense. It veers all over the map of tenebrous drum and synthesizers and stygian guitar, at times with a cautious paranoia and at times with tuneful defiance (and in some moments harmonica, saxophone or flute).

Today’s “Club Deuce” is a flat-out sexy floor filler. Its low-end sizzle is designed to make you move, and slither like a lurker at the threshold of the dance floor. “I thought of the idea for this song at first like a movie in my mind,” says Luman. “It was the story of a fated man and a modern day Venus with complete and unrelenting control. The set was a quiet corner in a thunderstruck city with endless commotion in the distance. The whole thing glowing like a neon sign. ‘Club Deuce’ churns unhurried until it billows all around you and you’re caught like a fly in the jaws of a venus fly trap.”

Listen to The Serfs’ “Club Deuce”

The Serfs, emerging like a missile from some surreptitious silo, were formed while McCartney and Carlyle were scraping the bottom of the barrel, tilling the soil for the baron (a.k.a. working the fryers at a pub) and generally wallowing in the puddles of despair. The two decided to express their grim outlook through self-hypnosis by way of drums and synthesizers. After a couple of bungled attempts to play live, Luman joined the band and the classic trio lineup was formed. Like their Ohio predecessors, The Serfs seem askew from the art that surrounds them, and they’re proud of it. Half Eaten By Dogs may be a step further down into the catacombs for the band, but if the principle of correspondence is correct, then they could be on their way to somewhere higher.

Pre-order Half Eaten By Dogs

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Art Feynman is “Desperately Free” on his new single.

Today, Art Feynman — the recording alias of visual artist and producer Luke Temple — presents his new single, “Desperately Free,” from his forthcoming album, Be Good The Crazy Boys, out November 10th on Western Vinyl. Following lead single “All I Can Do,” “Desperately Free” keeps the grooves going, propelled by tropical-inflected percussion and infectious chants. “Something changed while I was sleeping,” the backing vocalists interject between Temple’s murmured incantations, “Somehow I feel different // as I go about my day.” Of “Desperately Free,” Temple adds: “I was thinking about the obsession with spiritual growth or with ‘curing’ death and the compensatory consequences that ensue as a result. We can’t cheat nature of which we are one and the same, she’ll find balance eventually.”

Watch Art Feynman’s “Desperately Free” Visualizer

Until now, Art Feynman has strictly been a solo act, a way for Temple to explore surprising sonic landscapes without the burdens of identity. Be Good The Crazy Boys was recorded live in-studio with a full band. The result captures a spirit of restless anxiety, and recalls the most frenetic work by Talking Heads, or Oingo Boingo at their darkest. “Sonically, I was inspired by records that were recorded at the late Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas such as Grace Jones’ ‘Private Life,’ Lizzy Mercier Descloux’s Mambo Nassau, and Talking Heads’ Remain in Light.” Despite these callbacks, Be Good The Crazy Boys remains firmly rooted in modern concerns, with songs about fearing the end of the world and struggling with FOMO — narratives that would be relatable if they didn’t sound so completely unhinged.

Slightly twisted takes on Kosmische musik, worldbeat, and art pop can be found scattered across the Art Feynman discography, but with Be Good The Crazy Boys, Temple fully immerses himself into pools of collective madness. With Be Good The Crazy Boys, Art Feynman proves to be more than just a character. He represents the part of the modern, collective consciousness that’s struggling to maintain balance in a toxic, chaotic world. In less skilled hands, that concept could result in a very somber listen. Fortunately, when Art Feynman gets his hands on the chaos of the modern age, it simply makes you want to dance.

Temple explains, “To me, there was a lot of energy that needed to be released as the result of living in isolation for six years. It also seems to speak to a general anxiety we’re all holding, but it’s expressed in a cathartic way.” It’s this acknowledgement of general anxiety that separates Feynman from the other fictional personas that have been cropping up in the music world lately. Feynman doesn’t sound suave, confident, or even heartbroken in these songs; it sounds like he’s on the verge of a panic attack.

Listen to “All I Can Do”

Pre-order Be Good The Crazy Boys

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Will Butler + Sister Squares frolic in the “Long Grass” with their debut single.

Will Butler + Sister Squares announce their new self-titled album out September 22nd on Merge and present its lead single/video, “Long Grass.” Sister Squares are Miles Francis, Julie Shore, Jenny Shore, and Sara Dobbs; what made them a musical unit was working with Grammy winner and Oscar nominee Will Butler. The resulting Will Butler + Sister Squares is a record with a warm, humane soul.

“I met Jenny—my wife!—in college, the year before I joined Arcade Fire,” says Will. “When I needed a band to tour Policy [Merge, 2015], I asked [Jenny’s sister] Julie to join because I trusted her musically. And I asked Sara, Jenny and Julie’s childhood friend, because I knew she was super talented,” says Will. “Antibalas (who I was drumming for) opened some Arcade Fire shows,” says Miles, who offered to play drums anytime Will needed. Will, Julie, Sara, and Miles jelled on tour and everyone worked on vocal arrangements. All along, Jenny contributed to recordings and general performance ideas, and she joined onstage in 2019.

“After Generations [Merge, 2020], I considered making a weird solo record. Me alone in the basement, etc., etc. Mostly I realized that what I wanted was the opposite,” says Will. He increasingly turned to the band for feedback on lyrics and song structures. He asked Miles if they’d produce the record.

“Will and I organically discovered our relationship as a production duo through making this album. We didn’t have to talk too much about things as they happened, because the music just flowed,” says Miles. “As a producer, working with Jenny, Julie, and Sara is the dream. They connect so innately. In one motion they can conjure a mood, or get at the root of a feeling.”

The band played a run of shows in August 2022, airing out studio ideas in live rooms. After coming home, the band regrouped at Figure 8 Studios in Brooklyn. The album, broadly, is equal parts from Figure 8, group experiments from Will’s basement, and sessions in Miles’ Synthia Studio.

“I had quit my band Arcade Fire very recently, after 20 years—maybe the most complex decision of my life. I had spent the preceding two years at home with my three children. I was 39 years old. I was waking up every morning and reading Emily Dickinson, until I had read every Emily Dickinson poem. I was listening to Morrissey, to Shostakovich, to the Spotify top 50. I had unformed questions with inchoate answers,” says Will. “But, honestly, I was feeling great about the record.”

The album projects widescreen emotional landscapes. Lead-off single “Long Grass” is like a Harry Styles song with 20 more years of life behind it. “I had read this novella called Jamila by a Soviet/Kyrgyz author named Chingiz Aitmatov from the ’50s,” says Will. “It’s about an artist looking back on his childhood in a small town in Kyrgyzstan in WWII. It’s about love, and becoming an artist, and melancholy, and vast landscapes with a single train track running through them. And it reminded me of young adulthood, of wandering moodily down the train tracks. Maybe the song is also about leaving behind the things that formed us, but trying to remember the world as it used to be?”

Will Butler + Sister Squares will tour in support of their new album this fall.

Watch the video for “Long Grass”

Pre-order Will Butler + Sister Squares

Will Butler + Sister Squares Tour Dates:

July 29-30 – Guelph, ON @ Hillside Festival

Sept. 23 – Brooklyn, NY @ Zone One

Oct. 3 – Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon

Oct. 4 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent

Oct. 6 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios

Oct. 7 – Seattle, WA @ Barboza

Oct. 8 – Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret

Oct. 17 – Boston, MA @ Deep Cuts

Oct. 18 – Montreal, QC @ Bar le Ritz

Oct. 19 – Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace

Oct. 20 – Detroit, MI @ Loving Touch

Oct. 21 – Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village

Oct. 22 – Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop

Nov. 7 – Riga, LV @ Palladium

Nov. 10 – Berlin, DE @ Privatclub

Nov. 12 – Aarhus, DK @ VoxHall

Nov. 14 – Rotterdam, NL @ Rotown

Nov. 15 – Paris, FR @ Café de la Danse

Nov. 16 – Brussels, BE @ Botanique

Nov. 17 – London, UK @ ICA

Nov. 18 – Dublin, IE @ Whelan’s

Nov. 30 – Philadelphia, PA @ PhilaMOCA

Dec. 1 – Washington, DC @ DC9

Dec. 2 – Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Tantrum Zentrum have simple advice for us all – “Don’t Be a Fascist.”

British / North American post-punk outfit Tantrum Zentrum present their new single ‘Don’t Be A Fascist‘, which is both well-timed and thematic given the crazy state of affairs in the world at the moment. The most unlikely love story ever – this song is about falling head over heals… with a fascist!

Based in London, Tantrum Zentrum’s members draw from the UK, Canada and the USA, music having brought them together like a magnet while living in London. Inspired by early 70s krautrock and late 70s New York no-wave bands, they deliver sonic dissonance and poppy hooks with great energy and style… imagine Killing Joke on happy pills.

This is the second of three songs recently recorded with renowned producer Steve Evans (Robert Plant, Siousxie Sioux, Goldfrapp). The earlier-released single ‘Der Leiermann’ is performed in German. And while the new single is performed in English, it contains a few Bosnian and corrupted German words for emphasis.

Made up of Vaat Dafuq (vocals, guitar), Sabine de Rousseau (guitar, vocals), Valhalla Schimmer (bass guitar) and Kur Putchnik (drums). Tantrum Zentrum makes hi-energy post punk interlaced with funk, goth and krautrock influences.

“‘Don’t Be A Fascist’ is a wartime love story. Inspired by the 80s Yugoslavian pop hit ‘Fa Fa Fašista’ (performed by Sarajevo’s Plavi Orkestar), the song tells a story as old as time itself: boy meets girl, and they fall in love. Then their country gets occupied by the German forces of the Third Reich, and the girl falls for the tall, handsome enemy soldier in a magnificent uniform. Needless to say, the boy is furious!” says Vaat Dafuq.

“We chose a bombastic title that may resonate with many even now. The release is accompanied by a humorous ‘explainer’-style video that shouldn’t be taken too seriously.”

With analogue synths, distortion and hypnotic drums played with Devo-esque precision, the band’s music shares elements of Krautrock pioneers Neu! and Faust, along with goth and no-wave experimentalists such as Sonic Youth, Glenn Branca and Theoretical Girls.

Tantrum Zentrum creates memorable live performances loaded with good energy, humour, excellent musicianship and in several languages. Always happy to play for their audience, they aim to get people moving, while fostering genuine connections and a sense of community. The band will be playing a number of club shows in the UK in support of this release.

“Don’t Be a Fascist” is available from fine music platforms, including Apple Music, Spotify and Bandcamp.

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[Thanks to Shauna at Shameless Promotion.]

The Clientle release “Dying in May” at the end of May and ahead of their “I’m Not There Anymore” album due in July.

The Clientele — the cherished UK outfit composed of vocalist/lyricist/guitarist Alasdair MacLean, bassist James Hornsey, and drummer Mark Keen — presents “Dying in May,” the new single from their forthcoming album, I Am Not There Anymore, out July 28th on Merge. On “Dying in May,” Keen’s live drums weave around programmed drum and bass samples, creating something polyrhythmic and avant-garde. Following the serene lead single “Blue Over Blue,” “Dying in May” elucidates the range of genres The Clientele explore on I Am Not There Anymore, a 19-track journey that extends from light bossa nova beats to the band’s classic chamber pop.

Of the track, MacLean says: “I think ‘Dying in May’ is the first Clientele song with no guitar. It also has no chords, as such — it’s a drone, with french horn, cello and Mellotron. So the rhythm does a lot of the work — the drums and percussion are in 9/8, but the singing and instruments are in 4/4, so as each bar goes past, there’s a slightly different rhythmic emphasis. This was a complete accident, but I loved it when I heard it — the patterns are a bit disorientating, but there’s a pulse that goes through it. I almost feel I could dance to this, but not quite. It’s based on an Arabic flamenco rhythm.

“The words are all fragmented too — simple images repeating, like someone in a high fever. I took some inspiration from cante jondo, Spanish flamenco — there tend to be two or three very focused, repetitive images in the words. There was no way in hell I could play guitar along with these rhythms, so I scored out a simple melody which would leave space for the drums, and be something the bass could latch on to. By the end, the words go over and over, like someone beside themselves with grief. Hence the title. It’s a harrowing subject, but I think it’s presented with love — the song hopefully opens it out and lets some air in. It feels like an exorcism for me.”

Listen to The Clientele’s “Dying in May”
I Am Not There Anymore regularly evokes what MacLean calls “the feeling of not being real.” A lot of the lyrics were inspired by MacLean’s memories of the early summer in 1997, when his mother died. Though the album functions as MacLean’s way of mourning, he notes that he’s not the kind of songwriter who ever sits down with a theme in mind. It’s more that “the music will bring images and then those images link of their own accord.” It’s a general mood he’s chasing with these loosely connected recollections.

The previous Clientele album, 2017’s Music for the Age of Miracles, arrived after a seven-year hiatus and featured the band’s familiar wistful melodies and haunting echo. Recording for I Am Not There Anymorebegan in 2019 and continued piecemeal until 2022 — in part because of the pandemic, but also because the band wanted to experiment. “We’d always been interested in music other than guitar music, like for donkey’s years,” MacLean says. This time out, the trio incorporated elements of post-bop jazz, contemporary classical and electronic music. According to MacLean, “None of those things had been able to find their way into our sound other than in the most passing way, in the faintest imprint.”

Over The Clientele’s 32-year career, critics and fans have often described their songs with words like “ethereal,” “shimmering,” “hazy,” “pretty” and “fragile.” MacLean, though, has his own interpretation of the effect his music creates. “It’s that feeling of not being there,” he says. “What’s really been in all the Clientele records is a sense of not actually inhabiting the moment that your body is in.” I Am Not There Anymore, as MacLean says, is all about “the memory of childhood but at the same time the impossibility of truly remembering childhood… or even knowing who or what you are.”

This August, The Clientele will embark on a U.S. tour, featuring stops at Bowery Ballroom in New York City, Lodge Room in Los Angeles, Lincoln Hall in Chicago, and more. All dates are listed below and tickets are on sale now.

Watch The Clientele’s “Blue Over Blue” video

Pre-order I Am Not There Anymore

The Clientele Tour Dates:
Fri. July 28 – London, UK @ Rough Trade East
Wed. Aug. 9 – Somerville, MA @ Crystal Ballroom at Somerville Theatre
Thu. Aug. 10 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
Fri. Aug. 11 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
Sat. Aug. 12 – Washington, DC @ Songbyrd
Sun. Aug. 13 – Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall
Tue. Aug. 15 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
Thu. Aug. 17 – Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
Fri. Aug. 18 – Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy and Harriet’s
Sat. Aug. 19 – Big Sur, CA @ Fernwood Tavern (inside)
Sun. Aug. 20 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
Tue. Aug. 22 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
Wed. Aug. 23 – Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Debauch-a-Reno 2023 announces lineup schedule.

Both weekends of DEBAUCH-a-ReNO are set in stone and nearly sold out as of this announcement. Here’s a summary of expectations, and scroll down to see the official schedule.

The first weekend kicks off on the night of June 16th over at Cypress with four powerhouse local groups demonstrating there’s still a burgeoning DIY scene happening throughout the Biggest Little City In The World. The bands scheduled to grace the stage that evening include the contemporary post-punk neanderthal-ism of Clarko, the jangling garage beat-meets-jugular slash punk attack and sarcasm of The Juvinals, the trashcan glam n’ roll of Pussy Velour, and the urgent, mudslide sound of Rotary Club.

The following day’s event begins in the afternoon at Wingfield Park Amphitheatre. It culminates with a co-headlining bill with notorious Belgium punks, The Kids, playing their first US show in seven years alongside San Bruno’s anchormen of the trash rock netherworld, The Mummies, and Sacramento garage rock titans, The Troublemakers, who mark three decades together this year. Playing in support is Tucson’s own Farfisa a-go-go power quartet, The Okmoniks, making a return to DEBAUCH-a-ReNO, and local quartet Thee Saturday Knights opening the afternoon. However, the budget rock n’ roll onslaught doesn’t end upon the final chord ring out from Kids frontman Ludo Meriman’s guitar; the after-party returns to Cypress, where Holland blues-punk trio, Lo-Lite makes their long-awaited US return alongside the unhinged antagonism of Jamie Paul Lamb’s sardonic alter ego, Puppy and The Hand Jobs, and the Bay Area’s own Just Head, in addition to A SPECIAL SURPRISE GUEST!!!!

Closing out the weekend is another pair of co-headliners hailing from San Diego county as revered Chula Vista punks The Zeroes will make a return to Reno to headline June 18th’s performance at Wingfield Park alongside the twang guitar and power tools action of fellow San Diegans, Deadbolt. Support will be provided by a band that L7 helped push into the masses with their “American Society” cover on Smell The Magic as Eddie & The Subtitles will perform alongside Reno psych-punks, Spitting Image, and Los Angeles rockers, Tube Alloys.

The second weekend’s one-night stand soiree will occur south of Reno in the time-stamped silver mining town of Virginia City on July 14th and anchored by a man whose work crosses music, publishing, and painting AND whom Kurt Cobain, Jack White, Graham Coxon, and Kylie Minogue have paid tribute to in their own right with Wild Billy Childish & CTMF, making their exclusive US performance for 2023 at Piper’s Opera House (est. 1863) alongside Sacramento’s garage-mod screamers, Th’ Losin Streaks. A goodclosing lineup, right? Well, those two weren’t enough because we’ve got one of America’s more criminally underrated bands flying in from one sweatbox to another, with the gutter minimalist bump n’ grind of Subsonics making a rare and special appearance from Atlanta.

DEBAUCH-a-ReNo 2023 June Weekend Schedule
*Headliners
Non-Headliner schedule subject to change
DJs include Jello Biafra, Vivi Martian, Tony The Tyger, Bazooka Joe, and Slovenly Pete
Friday, June 16th (8:00 p.m. – 4:00 a,m.) – OPENING PARTY with bands / DJs**
Venue: Cypress Reno (directions + info here).
Lineup: The Juvinals, Clarko, Pussy Velour, Rotary Club

Saturday, June 17th (2:00 p.m. -10:00 p.m.) – MAIN EVENT with bands, DJs, and record fair
Venue: Wingfield Park Amphitheater (directions + info here).
Lineup: The Kids*, The Mummies*, The Troublemakers*, Okmoniks, Thee Saturday Knights

Saturday, June 17th (10:00 p.m. – 4:00 a.m.) – AFTERPARTY with bands / DJs
Venue: Cypress Reno
Lineup: Lo-Life, Puppy and The Hand Jobs, Just Head + SURPRISE SPECIAL GUEST!

Sunday, June 18th (2:00 p.m. -10:00 p.m.) – MAIN EVENT with bands & DJs**
Venue: Wingfield Park Amphitheater
Lineup: The Zeros*, Deadbolt*, Eddie & The Subtitles, Spitting Image, Tube Alloys

DEBAUCH-a-ReNO 2023 July One-Nighter Schedule
Friday, July 14th (7:00 p.m – Midnight) – MAIN EVENT with bands & DJ Bazooka Joe
Venue: Piper’s Opera House (directions + info here)
Lineup: Wild Billy Childish & CTMF*, Subsonics, Th’ Losin Streaks

CLICK HERE TO HEAR THE DEBAUCH-a-ReNO MIXTAPE FOR KWNK RADIO!

Tickets
Full passes (access to both Wingfield & Cypress shows), Park (Wingfield only), and Virginia City tickets are available through Eventsmart. That’s a good thing; they’re the kind of company who don’t blindside customers with the insane hidden fees the larger ticket companies are notorious for.

GET YOUR DEBAUCH-a-ReNO PASSES HERE
Room Deals
Hotel deals for DEBAUCH-a-ReNO are available through RENO SUITES in Downtown Reno (a 10-minute walk from Wingfield Park) for $109/nightly (that price includes taxes and fees). The reviews at this place are solid, and to get this rate, you’ll need to book through the link below.

BOOK YOUR DISCOUNTED HOTEL ROOM HERE

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[Thanks to Matthew at Shattered Platter PR.]

Rewind Review: The Last Four Digits – Don’t Move (2016)

You often hear of a lot of music collections being described as “essential.” The term gets used to the point of near-meaninglessness, but in the case of Don’t Move, the collection of three years’ worth of material from both incarnations of Indiana synth and new wave legends The Last Four Digits, it’s true. In another universe, The Last Four (4, or 5) Digits are as well known as The B-52s or The Ramones, but in this reality, their limited output only makes their legend better.

The first eight tracks of this compilation are songs from the first version of the band, The Last Four (4) Digits with Steve Grigdesby (rhythm guitar and vocals), John Koss drums and vocals), Mike Sheets (bass and vocals), and Richard Worth (lead guitar and vocals) – with synthesizers and mixing with Dave “A.Xax” Fulton. They’re all jittery, crunchy punk cuts that remind you of those scary kids you’d see hanging out of the mall in the early 1980s (I was one of them, by the way.). Heck, “Leave Me Alone” is practically a theme song for Generation X. The weird angles of Worth’s guitar and vocals on “Fast Friends” reminds you of Joy Division tracks.

Their version of Bo Diddley‘s / Captain Beefheart‘s “Diddy Wah Diddy” swaps out most of the raunchy guitars for weird synths…and it still works. “Another Sex Crime” has plenty of swagger, and “City Streets” is grungy synth-punk that would make early Devo proud. You’ll want “(I Want to Be an) Undertaker” on all of your Halloween playlists after hearing it, and you might as well add “Coughing Up Blood” while to your “birthday songs” playlists while you’re at it. “(I Sold My Soul to) Fotomat” is perhaps the beginning of what would become one of the main themes of the second version of the band.

The Last Four (5) Digits had Sheets switch from bass to guitar, kept Joss on drums, and brought Fulton out from behind the mixing board, and added Brad “Mr. Science” Garton on keyboards and vocals and Julie Huffaker on bass and vocals. As the liner notes of Don’t Move will tell you, they embraced “Abstract Commercialism” and began including TV themes, commercial jingles, and advertising concepts in their songs and live shows. “Don’t Move” takes on a darker tone that some of their other tracks, which I love.

“Liquids” is a great example of their love of commercial culture, sampling early 1980s ads and singing about drinking colored liquids, eating colored foodstuffs, and taking lots of drugs. “Act Like Nothing’s Wrong” is a fun song about trying to figure out what’s wrong with a lover while also trying not to piss off that same lover while doing it. “Babaloo No More” is a tale of Lucy Ricardo killing Ricky after he has an affair and Fred and Ethel threatening to boot her out of their apartment if she can’t make the rent. It’s funny, weird, and gives a hard kick in the junk to re-run TV. Their cover of “Mack the Knife” is equally strange, and “I Have Rental Car” is the sound of entitled people yelling about crap that doesn’t really matter.

The last eleven tracks on Don’t Move are a recording of their performance at CBGB‘s on Valentine’s Day 1982. They open with the simple announcement of “Hi. We’re The Last Four Digits,” and then go straight in to “Liquids.” Huffaker’s bass is so heavy on the live version of “Leave Me Alone” that it almost levels the room. They turn the grisly “Coughing Up Blood” into a pogo-inducing rocker, but change the lyric “Coughing up blood on your birthday!” to “Coughing up blood on your Valentine!” in honor of that night.

They cover of “Return to Sender” and then throw down a thudding version of “Act Like Nothing’s Wrong,” followed by a nearly panicked version of “Babaloo No More.” Up next come covers of “Mack the Knife” and the theme to the wild sci-fi film The Green Slime. The live version of “I Have Rental Car” is even more frenetic and unhinged than the studio version.

It’s a crucial collection if you’re into vintage no wave / new wave stuff, and the addition of the live tracks is a boon for collectors and enthusiasts. Don’t skip it if you can find it. I scored it for 99 cents at Reckless Records in Chicago earlier this year – a massive steal.

Keep your mind open.

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The National remix NEU!’s “Im Glück” for tribute album.

NEU!, the legendary Krautrock duo of Michael Rother and the late Klaus Dinger, celebrate the 50th anniversary of their self-titled debut album with the NEU! 50! box set, out September 23rd via Grönland. NEU! 50! includes albums NEU!, NEU! 2!, and NEU! 75, plus the brand new NEU! Tribute Album, a NEU! stencil and booklet. As one of the great, belated success stories of rock music, NEU!’s influence continues to be internationally widespread. Since paving their own road ahead, they’ve created a model of forward propulsion away from conventional rock clichés. The NEU! Tribute Album shows how much there is for subsequent generations to unpack in NEU!, how much is buried, implied in their sound. It features reworkings and NEU!-inspired originals by Idles, Guerilla Toss, Stephen Morris (New Order, Joy Division) and Gabe Gurnsey (Factory Floor), Man Man, Mogwai, Alexis Taylor, and more, including today’s new remix of “Im Glück” by The National. In their remix, The National pull back and reveal the latent colors, rhythmic potentials and mental freeways of “Im Gluck.”

Listen to “Im Glück (The National Remix)”

NEU! are a product of Düsseldorf, Germany, home to Kraftwerk’s Klingklang studios, as well as galleries, graphic designers and advertising agencies. Rother and Dinger drew on all of this and their impeccable musical training to create the overall concept of NEU!. They intended to create a previously unheard new music, aping the processes of commodification while remaining resolutely hostile to the commerciality of the music industry. Like other experimental bands of the late 60s and early 70s gathered under the Krautrock banner, NEU! were driven by a mixture of political and artistic imperatives to reject the clichés and conventions of orthodox, blues-based Anglo-American rock and create a music that was, formally, West German in origin.

Pre-order NEU! 50!

Watch “Hallogallo (Stephen Morris and Gabe Gurnsey Remix)” Visualizer

Listen to “Weissensee (Fink Version)”

Listen to “Zum Herz” by Guerilla Toss

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[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Palm announces new album and brings us its first single – “Feathers.”

Palm – the Philly-based band of Hugo Stanley (drums), Gerasimos Livitsanos (bass), Eve Alpert (guitars/vocals), and Kasra Kurt (guitars/vocals) – announces their new album, Nicks and Grazes, out October 14th on Saddle Creek. Today, they present its lead single/video, “Feathers,” marking their first new music in four years. On Nicks and Grazes, Palm embraces discordance to dazzling effect – capturing the spontaneous, free energy of their inimitable live shows while integrating elements from the traditionally gridded palette of electronic music. Citing Japanese pop music, dub, and footwork as influences on the album’s sonic landscape, the band also found themselves revisiting the artists who inspired them to start the group over a decade ago such as Glenn Branca, Captain Beefheart, and Sonic Youth. Returning to the fundamentals gave Palm a strong foundation upon which they could experiment freely, resulting in their most ambitious and revelatory album to date.

“Feathers” marries Palm’s off-kilter artistic sensibilities with an impossibly catchy vocal melody that unspools around the refrain “Make it up! Like a performer!” As the song progresses, all that’s left is a skeletal arrangement. The stark, black and white medieval video was directed by Daniel Brennan. “‘Feathers’ went through a few drafts – I was initially playing a plodding line on the bass guitar but something about the arrangement wasn’t working. It was only once I switched to bass synth that there was a strong enough center for the atonal guitar and synth pads to make sense,” says Livitsanos. “The first one we tracked in the studio, ‘Feathers’ became an undanceable dance song at the last minute.”

Watch Palm’s Video for “Feathers”

Palm’s live performances are revered for their uncanny synchronicity; one gets the sense that, on psychic levels unseen, the members share an intuition unexplained by logic. Over the last decade, the costs of maintaining such intense symbiosis consumed the lives of its members to a point of exhaustion, and to a place where they were unsure if they’d make another record. It was only after multiple freak injuries followed by a pandemic, forced a pause – from touring but also from writing, rehearsing, even seeing each other – that the four were able to regroup and see a way forward again. “I used to think of Palm as an organism, a single coherent system, and at a younger point in our lives, that seemed like the ideal way to be a band,” Alpert reflects. “I’m realizing now that it’s unrealistic, that for this band to grow we had to tend to ourselves as individuals – little pieces – who create the whole.”

Nicks and Grazes is a natural progression from their 2018 album Rock Island, which found the band beginning to incorporate electronic elements into their sound. While making Nicks and Grazes, the line between songwriting and production was blurred. The band spent the last few years educating themselves on the ins and outs of production by learning Ableton while also experimenting with the more percussive and textural elements of their instruments. Palm also worked with a producer for the first time, Matt Anderegg. “With this record one might assume that we were slowly building a house brick by brick, but it’s more like we were gathering and experimenting with different types of materials for the first couple of years, and then we built the house somewhat quickly,” Stanley says of the making of Nicks and Grazes. “It’s hard to overstate Matt’s role in bringing everything together.”

“Music isn’t about things. It is things,” Richard Powers wrote in his novel Orfeo. While making Nicks and Grazes, Kurt found himself returning to this quote as a guiding philosophy. Though a single narrative remains elusive throughout the album, echoes of the members’ individual and collective experiences come into focus through the use of samples. Snippets of conversation on tour in Spain and the blare of a Philly high school marching band’s early morning practice are just a few examples of daily sonic flotsam the band incorporated with instrumentation to create a new communal experience. The album’s titular track is a prime example; Anderegg combined the band’s disparate field recordings into a diaristic kaleidoscope of sound, as much a collection of memories as it is its own composition. “We’re constantly grabbing at sounds that move us,” Stanley says. “In a sense, the record is cobbled together from these pieces of our lives.”

Pre-order Nicks and Grazes

Nicks and Grazes Tracklist
1. Touch and Go
2. Feathers
3. Parable Lickers
4. Eager Copy
5. Brille
6. On The Sly
7. And Chairs
8. Away Kit
9. Suffer Dragon
10. Mirror Mirror
11. Glen Beige
12. Tumbleboy
13. Nicks and Grazes

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Ahmad at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Regressive Left – On the Wrong Side of History

Blending post-punk, post-funk, and disco, Regressive Left‘s debut EP, On the Wrong Side of History, is four tracks of witty lyrics, bumping beats, and a bit of happy chaos that was recorded in five marathon days (11am to 1am recording sessions) during pandemic shutdown.

“I’m on the wrong side of history,” sings vocalist and electronics whiz Simon Tyrie as dance-punk beats build up behind him. He sings about being “desensitized to the taste of real life.” We all know that’s an easy trap to fall into, but Georgia Hardy‘s beats encourage us to climb out of it and dance with joy at our success in doing so. Tyrie asks those in power to take an honest look in the mirror and to carefully choose a side (“You’ve been ignoring the voices of others for far too long.”). “I don’t want to become a meme!” he and Hardy cry. “I only talk about free speech when it concerns my freedom to be a dick,” Tyrie continues, mocking the shouts of so many who mock those who just want to be heard. The whole song, and the whole EP, is full of scathing, sharp lyrics like this.

Will Crosby‘s guitars skitter and slide all over the place on “World on Fire,” and Tyrie’s vocals take on a bit of a David Byrne tinge as he takes shots at the failures of Reaganomics, rich elitists (“The world for a trust fund!”), and the economic system in general. “Bad Faith” teams them up with Mandy, Indiana to tackle the trend of people to automatically assume the worst in people, or that their statements are automatically wrong – mostly thanks to the internet. The EP closes with “No More Fun,” a song originally about how school kids in the UK were underfed at lunch but has since grown into a finger in the eye of British politicians grinding some people into the ground with policies that help no one but themselves.

It’s a wicked EP, and one that promises a lot of good things in the future. Let’s hope Regressive Left don’t wait long to bring us a whole album.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to James at Prescription PR.]