Post-punk – Page 17 – 7th Level Music

shame take a “Snow Day” on their new single.

Today, shame present a new single, “Snow Day,” off of their long-anticipated new album, Drunk Tank Pink, out January 15th on Dead Oceans. It follows previously released singles “Water in the Well” and “Alphabet.” Alongside, the band share a visualiser featuring drone footage shot in the Scottish Borders, where the band wrote Drunk Tank Pink. Additionally, shame announce a live broadcast from Rough Trade in London on January 14th.

The rolling, snow-covered hills make a befitting backdrop for the atmospheric build of “Snow Day,” with frontman Charlie Steen’s sombre and introspective opening words making way for the storming twists and turns that arrive throughout. The song is a standout on the record, carried by the rhythmic, unrelenting drumming from Charlie Forbes, with chiming guitars which dictate the mood changes and push and pull the song into different directions. Steen’s lyrics dovetail with the music all the while; from its reflective opening to the snarl of its highest points. Undoubtedly it’s the band’s most musically ambitious release to date; a symphony in a song. Charlie Steen explains: “A lot of this album focuses on the subconscious and dreams, this song being the pivotal moment of these themes. A song about love that is lost and the comfort and displeasure that comes after you close your eyes, fall into sleep, and are forced to confront yourself.”
WATCH SHAME’S VISUALIZER FOR “SNOW DAY”
“Snow Day,” like the rest of the tracks making up Drunk Tank Pink, marks a determined leap forward for shame. The tracks began life as the band readjusted to a new normal back home having spent much of their adult life on tour, with themes spanning disintegrating relationships, the loss of the sense of self and identity crises. The result is an enormous expansion of shame’s sonic arsenal.
WATCH SHAME’S VIDEO FOR “WATER IN THE WELL”

WATCH VIDEO FOR “BiL”

WATCH VIDEO FOR “ALPHABET”

PRE-ORDER DRUNK PINK TANK

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Khruangin – LateNightTales

When asked to make their own LateNightTales compilation, Khruangbin decided to make it as much a showcase of international talent as possible. The result is a luxurious musical trip around the globe.

Opening track “Illuminations” by Devadip Carlos Santana and Turiya Alice Coltrane is like the opening theme to an exotic romance / adventure film with it’s luscious harp strings, playful violins, and simple piano and guitar chords. “I Know That (When the Spring Time Comes)” by Brilliantes Del Vuelo is robotic dub with thick bass, reverbed hand percussion, and vocals that sound like a Star Wars droid. “Khushi” by Nazia Hassan is Middle Eastern disco with neon synths and a slick hand percussion beat.

Kelly Doyle‘s “DRM” is full of thumping electro-bass and fun, slightly off-kilter beats. The bass gets fatter on Sanullim‘s “Don’t Go” – a track that will go directly onto your disco and / or funk playlists. Maxwell Udoh‘s “I Like It (Don’t Stop)” is more slick disco and David Marez‘s “Enséñame” has big brass horns that Portishead would love to sample and sharp 1970’s Spanish love song vocals.

Gerald Lee‘s “Can You Feel the Love (Reprise)” is pure 1970s bedroom rock with sultry female vocals (“Here we are, sitin’ with one another, so alive and so free…”). Justine and the Victorian Punks have a pillow talk conversation over a sweet groove that would be perfect for strutting your stuff down a runway. George Yanagi and Nadja Band then saunter into the room with a Japanese slow jam that should be on any turntable in the Land of the Rising Sun if you plan on any nocturnal mixers there.

Russian lounge jazz follows that. Khruangbin slide into the mix next with a cover of Kool and the Gang‘s “Summer Madness” that is so smooth that you almost slip on it as it oozes out of your speakers and settles on the floor around you. Paloma San Basilio‘s “Contigo” has playful female vocals backed with R&B bass and wicked high hat work. The horn section on the Roha Band‘s “Yetikimt Abeba” is top-notch, knowing when to move to the front and when to stay out of the way of the vocals and effortless beat. The album ends with a spoken word piece by Tierney Malone and Geoffrey Muller. It’s a love poem that sounds like it’s from space (and, after all, much of the poem is about the speaker chasing after his love who has left the Earth) with simple banjo plucks and space transmission beeps.

It’s a lovely compilation and one that will make you seek out a lot of these artists, as any compilation should do. Hats off to Khruangbin for putting it together for us.

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[Thanks to Sam at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Dry Cleaning present new single – “Scratchcard Lanyard.”

London-based band Dry Cleaning make their 4AD debut with a new single, “Scratchcard Lanyard,” and an accompanying video. The band first played the track on their KEXP session earlier this year, where they were the last act to record in the actual studios pre-COVID shutdown. “Scratchcard Lanyard” is a treatise on the joy of life’s little pleasures, where air fresheners become mighty oaks and Instagram filters are glamorous holiday destinations. In its companion video, the directorial debut of artist duo Rottingdean Bazaar (James Theseus Buck and Luke Brooks), the concept and set design riffs on the song’s celebration of the humdrum, inserting vocalist Florence Shaw into her own miniature night club.

Dry Cleaning further explain: “In the search for your true calling in life, it’s easy to try so many things that you end up confused. It can lead to an enormous build-up of frustration. You may fantasise about exacting revenge upon your real or imagined enemies. Ephemeral things and small-scale escapist experiences can provide some relief!”
Watch Dry Cleaning’s Video for “Scratchcard Lanyard”

Watch Dry Cleaning’s KEXP Session
Dry Cleaning is Nick Buxton (drums), Tom Dowse (guitar), Lewis Maynard (bass) and Florence Shaw (vocals). Firm friends for years, they only started making music after a karaoke party in 2017 inspired a collaboration. They wrote instrumentally to begin with and six months later Shaw, a university lecturer and picture researcher by day, joined on vocals with no prior musical experience.

Dry Cleaning’s music is simple – direct and uncomplicated. The Feelies, the Necessaries, the B52s and Pylon all served as inspirations when the band first came together. The small and intimate garage / rehearsal space had a huge influence on the sound; both of last year’s EPs “Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks” and “Sweet Princess,” were written here. The quartet have finished work on their debut album, with details to follow soon.

Dry Cleaning Online:
https://drycleaning.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/drycleaningband/
https://www.facebook.com/drycleaningband/
https://pitchperfectpr.com/dry-cleaning/

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

shame tap “Water in the Well” for new single.

Today, shame announce their long-anticipated new album, Drunk Tank Pink, out January 15th on Dead Oceans. In conjunction, they present a new single, “Water in the Well,” with an accompanying video directed by Pedro Takahashi. There are moments on Drunk Tank Pink where you almost have to reach for the sleeve to check this is the same band who made 2018’s Songs Of Praise. Such is the jump shame have made from the riotous post-punk of their debut to the sprawling adventurism laid out in the bigger, bolder James Ford produced follow-up.

This creative leap, in part, was sparked by the band’s recent crash back down to earth, having spent their entire adult life on the road. It stems from their beginnings as wide-eyed teenagers, cutting their teeth in the pubs and small venues of South London, to becoming the most celebrated new band in Britain, catapulted by the success of their breakthrough debut album. Readjusting to a new normal back home with – for the first time since the band’s formation – no live shows on the horizon, frontman Charlie Steen attempted to party his way out of psychosis. An intense bout of waking fever-dreams convinced Steen that self medicating his demons wasn’t a very healthy plan of action and it was probably time to stop and take a look inward. “You become very aware of yourself and when all of the music stops, you’re left with the silence,” reflects Steen. “And that silence is a lot of what this record is about.”

In a small room painted in a shade of pink used to calm down drunk tank inmates, Steen cocooned himself away to reflect and write. In the room dubbed “the womb,” he addressed the psychological toll life in the band had taken on him. The disintegration of his relationship, the loss of a sense of self and the growing identity crisis both the band and an entire generation were feeling.“The common theme when I was catching up with my mates was this identity crisis everyone was having,” reflects Steen. “No one knows what the fuck is going on.” “It didn’t matter that we’d just come back off tour thinking, ‘How do we deal with reality!?’” agrees guitarist Sean Coyle-Smith. “I had mates that were working in a pub and they were also like, ‘How do I deal with reality!?’ Everyone was going through it.”

Coyle-Smith took a different tac to Steen and barricaded himself in his bedroom. Barely leaving the house and instead obsessively deconstructing his very approach to playing and making music, he picked apart the threads of the music he was devouring (Talking Heads, Nigerian High Life, the dry funk of ESG, Talk Talk…) and created work infused with panic and crackling intensity. “For this album I was so bored of playing guitar,” he recalls, “the thought of even playing it was mind-numbing. So I started to write and experiment in all these alternative tunings and not write or play in a conventional ‘rock’ way.”

The genius of Drunk Tank Pink is how Steen’s lyrical themes dovetail with the music. Previously released opener “Alphabet” dissects the premise of performance over a siren call of nervous, jerking guitars, its chorus thrown out like a beer bottle across a mosh pit. Nigel Hitter, meanwhile, turns the mundanity of routine into something spectacular via a disjointed jigsaw of syncopated rhythms and broken wristed punk funk. The result is an enormous expansion of shame’s sonic arsenal.
WATCH SHAME’S VIDEO FOR “WATER IN THE WELL”

WATCH VIDEO FOR “BiL”

WATCH VIDEO FOR “ALPHABET”

PRE-ORDER DRUNK PINK TANK

DRUNK PINK TANK TRACKLIST
1. Alphabet
2. Nigel Hitter
3. Born in Luton
4. March Day
5. Water in the Well
6. Snow Day
7. Human, for a Minute
8. Great Dog
9. 6/1
10. Harsh Degrees
11. Station Wagon

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Rewind Review: Delta 5 – Singles & Sessions 1979 – 81 (2006)

Hailing from Leeds, United Kingdom, Delta 5 were, and still are, a highly influential post-punk band consisting of Ross Allen (bass and vocals), Kelvin Knight (drums), Bethan Peters (bass and vocals), Alan Riggs (guitar and vocals), and Julz Sale (vocals). They took the BBC airwaves a bit by storm after radio DJ legend John Peel was given a pre-release copy of their first single, “Mind Your Own Business,” and he asked them the next day to do a live session on air. You can’t ask for a much better start than that.

Singles & Sessions 1979-81 is a great collection of not only the band’s greatest hits, but also great live tracks and remixes. That first single is a post-punk masterpiece with groovy bass by Allen and Peters and Sale tag-teaming the vocals about people who can’t leave well enough alone (“Can I have a taste of your ice cream? Can I lick the crumbs from your table? Can I interfere in your crisis? No. Mind your own business.”). Knight’s drums have a slight disco touch to them, and Riggs’ guitar enters the song like a knife-wielding assassin. “Now That You’ve Gone” (the B-side to “Mind Your Own Business”) is a tale of longing (“Now that you’ve gone, I find it hard to go on.”) backed with guitars and bass that border on gothic surf.

Knight’s beats on “Anticipation” are top-notch, bringing early Devo and New Order tracks to mind. “You” was supposed to be the band’s first single, and it would not have been a bad choice. It’s peppy, fun, and snarky. “You don’t see what I see,” Sale sings on “Try” – a song that tries to get through the thick skulls of men to enlighten them as to what women go through every day in everything from work to just walking down the street. “Colour” is a short, sharp track, and the opening guitars of “Delta 5” are jagged yet cool.

“Make Up” is a damn fine track about superficiality with Riggs’ guitar wandering around the room like an angry cat and Allen’s bass keeping the song rooted. “There’s no need to worry, it’s not an affair,” Sale sings on “Triangle,” which seems to be a witty song about a threesome. Peters seems have a blast with the bass lick on it. Knight’s drum rolls fill up a lot of “Innocenti,” and there’s nothing wrong with that.

“Train Song” has rapid fire vocals and even faster drum fills and bass lines. “Why go out without protection?” Sale and Peters ask on “Final Scene.” They could be talking about firearms, condoms, or a good coat for all I know. I’m inclined to think they might refer to all three considering the dark edge of the track. “Singing the Praises” starts with more wicked riffs from Allan and Riggs and Sale’s vocals are a bit subdued to make them more mysterious.

Three live tracks follow – “Shadow,” “Circuit,” and “Journey.” All three are filled to the brim with a manic, sexy, dangerous energy. You can see the crowd shaking, jerking, pogoing, and shoving amid the darkness, cigarette smoke, and spilled pints. The collection ends with three remixes of “Mind Your Own Business” – a dub one by Man Ray, a reggae one featuring Monnei Lamar, and the third by Deerhoof that cranks up the fuzz and brings the vocals to the forefront. Of the three, Man Ray’s is the best.

All the tracks are good, really. It’s an essential collection for post-punk lovers.

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Smut release “Fan Age” ahead of new EP due November 20th.

Smut announces their new EP, Power Fantasy, out November 20th on Bayonet Records, and shares an official lyric video for the explosive lead single “Fan Age.” The Chicago-based band, originally hailing from Cincinatti, is comprised of Bell Cenower, Andrew Min, Sam Ruschman, and Tay Roebuck.

Uniting crunchy guitar tones and swirling synths, Smut embraces a liminality and experimentation that pushes the boundaries of pop music. They blend melody and moodiness to yield to a droney and percussive sound, taking influence from shoegaze, 90s hip hop, and trip-hop. Smut have conquered national tours with acts like Nothing, Swirlies, and Bully. Previously working as an actor, Roebuck’s performance is uninhibited, reflective of the stage presence of Blur’s Damon Albarn. Roebuck’s caustically sung, meditations on grief, guilt, and growing into oneself hover over a wall of sound, making us nostalgic for shoegaze bands past.

On Power Fantasy we find Smut in a state of transition. “Fan Age” begins in a dreamscape of guitar chords as Roebuck sings of climbing the backs of giants. About a minute and a half in, Smut has their feet firmly planted as “Fan Age” transforms into an infectious, self-assured anthem – “I don’t feel bad, I hold no guilt.” Power Fantasy demonstrates a new direction for the indie outfit, one characterized by continued self-reflection and sonic renewal.

To celebrate the release of Power Fantasy, Smut will livestream a performance via Baby’s All Right’s BabyTV on November 20th. Tickets are available here.
Watch “Fan Age” Lyric Video

Pre-order Power Fantasy EP

Power Fantasy EP Tracklist
1. Fan Age
2. Power Fantasy
3. Perfect Dark

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Soft Kill share new single – “Pretty Face” – from album due November 20th.

Today, the post-punk five piece, Portland’s Soft Kill share their second single “Pretty Face” from their forthcoming November 20th album release Dead Kids, R.I.P. City, their long awaited follow up to 2018’s ‘Savior’. Says the band’s Tobias Grave, “‘Pretty Face’ was written immediately after finding out about the loss of our friend Zachary Delong. It recounts some time we spent together on the edge of oblivion, late 2011 into the first weeks of 2012. Survivors guilt pouring out into song form” – ‘Relax your pretty face boy, the pain has left you.’

“We shot this to be a lyric video but we worked in some scenes, starting in Washington and traveling into the far north section of Portland, stopping by the abandoned dog track at Portland Meadows and ending at the motel made famous by Drugstore Cowboy. The imagery will resonate with some, I’m sure. The song is one we’ve played live for two years and it’s got a big cult following without ever having a studio version circulating.”

“Pretty Face” encapsulates listeners with its steady pulse of bass and cinematic-like guitar melodies, taking a slightly left field approach to post-punk with its triumphant and upbeat energy while still channeling the doom/gloom sound Portland’s Soft Kill has built their identity around. The song reflects the darker side of what the band has experienced the past few years. The single follows Soft Kill’s return last month when they dropped the lead doom pop single “Roses All Around.” It’s dark yet luminous in every sense, from its driving percussive beats, harmonic grooves and melodies, while also creating an opportunity to openly discuss its sociopolitical message that is especially prominent now as Portland has become the epicenter of unrest these past few months.

Soft Kill had been growing with pretty much every record – but a deep maturation, achieving a level of emotional intensity that, even for a band known for exactly that, was nothing short of awe-inspiring and inarguably a high water mark. The question then, was how do they possibly follow that up? Well, here we are, two years later with Dead Kids, R.I.P. City, and we can all set down our worry beads. Soft Kill, Tobias Grave, Conrad Vollmer, Owen Glendower, Daniel Deleon and Nicole Colbath, have in fact put any such concerns commandingly to rest.

Two years in the making, desperate, redemptive, its contrast of light and shadow favoring the latter, Dead Kids, R.I.P. City is like no other album in the genre, featuring the brave and abandoned, the tender and the afflicted, all teetering in memory on the edge of the city. For all the sadness and pain of addiction haunting it, however, the record, by its very existence, proves that hope doesn’t necessarily win but that, even if at great cost, it can. It’s what makes Dead Kids, R.I.P. City so powerful beyond just the scope of its dark luminous sound and indelible melodies, and is one of the many reasons you’ll carry it with you.

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[Thanks to Jo Murray.]

Gustaf claim what is “Mine” and sign with Royal Mountain Records.

Gustaf have announced their signing to Royal Mountain Records, alongside their debut single and video “Mine“. The first recorded material from a band who have played sold out shows around the United States based solely on word of mouth, “Mine” offers an engagingly weird and frantically off-kilter look into the all-encompassing world of the Brooklyn-based art-punk quintet.

LISTEN: to Gustaf “Mine” on YouTube

Vocalist Lydia Gammill explains: “This song is about having a false sense of entitlement. Someone who feels attacked or like they’re being pushed out of their own world and not getting the credit they deserve. Someone with a delusional sense of self whose anger and frustration is humorous like the superintendent in a college frat movie. The opening lines make it seem like the narrator is being criticized by someone else and their retaliation is like “you’ve got to be kidding me, you can’t say that about me! I invented water you punk!” …. sort of.“

———-

Formed in 2018, Brooklyn’s Gustaf have built a kind of buzz that feels like it comes from a different era. The art punk 5 piece are yet to release any recorded music, but rapidly established a reputation as one of New York’s “hardest working…and most reliably fun bands” (BrooklynVegan), and excitement about their danceable, ESG-inspired post punk has expanded outside of their city with remarkable effect despite their scant online presence. The band have found early champions in all quarters, catching the attention of luminaries like Beck – who had the band open for him at a secret loft party he played around the release of his latest album – the New York no wave legend James Chance, and have shared stages with buzzing indie acts like Omni, Tropical Fuck Storm, Dehd and Bodega, while word of mouth led to sell out shows when they played their first LA headline dates in late 2019.

While recent events have curtailed Gustaf’s live schedule, the band have remained relentless as ever in 2020, and entered the studio with producer Chris Coady (Beach House, Future Islands, TV On The Radio) to work on their first official release.

Mine 7″ is out on Royal Mountain Records on December 4th. It is available for pre-order here.

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Alpha Hopper deliver “The Goods” with new single.

Buffalo, NY quartet Alpha Hopper announce their forthcoming third album Alpha Hex Index will be released via Portland, OR label Hex Records on November 6th, 2020. Today the band shares the first single, “The Goods” via Echoes & Dust HERE. (Direct Bandcamp.)

“A bartender, a personal trainer, a graphic designer, and an immigration attorney walk into a practice space…”

Formed in Buffalo, New York in 2014, Alpha Hopper creates a frenetic stew of guitar-driven rock’n’roll with ingredients from punk, hardcore, noise rock, and no-wave. Their 3rd LP Alpha Hex Index shows them deeper than ever down their rabbit hole. Sassy, snotty vocals punctuating the ever growing wall of catchy, bizarre riffs and prison break drum beats. Dummy math, noise-rock for art-punk drop outs.
For this album the band decided to record the effort themselves in their homes. Pandemic-related shelter in place recommendations caused some hiccups in being able to track the entire effort in a single block, and instead recording sessions were conducted in intervals when the members could safely get together and hash out their respective parts. Once they were satisfied with the mix they handed things over to engineer John Angelo (Gwar, Every Time I Die, Gas Chamber) to handle mastering duties.

Alpha Hex Index will be available on LP, CD and digital on November 20th, 2020.

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[Thanks to Dave as US / THEM Group.]

Review: Oh Sees – Levitation Sessions

Recorded live in the parking lot of the famous Pappy and Harriet’s music venue in Pioneertown, California, Levitation Sessions by OSees is another great live set put together by the Reverb Appreciation Society and the folks behind the Levitation Music Festival. It’s also another great live album from Osees / Oh Sees / Thee Oh Sees / OCS (By the way, John Dwyer, if you’re reading this – I recommend “Eau Seas” for the next spelling, possibly calling the album under that moniker Water Weird.) that brings out some old tracks the band hadn’t played in years.

The album / show starts with the crowd favorite “Carrion Crawler,” getting things off to a deceptively quiet opening before unleashing rock fury. Mr. Dwyer (lead singer / guitarist) and his crew (Tim Hellman – bass, David Rincon – drums, Paul Quattrone – drums, Tomas Dolas – keyboards) give you a four-count to catch your breath before launching “I Come from the Mountain” at you like a rocket. “Static God” is the re-entry burn of that same rocket, and by now you’re holding on for dear life. Hellman’s bass is the harness keeping you in the rocket’s seat while Rincon and Quattrone are the sounds of the heat shield nearing critical failure. Dolas’ keys rise as Dwyer screams, “It doesn’t matter at all – your fucking institutions!” Impermanence is the only real thing.

The post / garage punk of “Sewer Fire” is outstanding and might cause you to pogo in your living room or office. Just try not to do it in your car while driving. “Chem Farmer / Nite Expo” blends keyboard-heavy prog-jazz with mammoth-heavy riffs and cymbal crashes. It ends with Dwyer yelling, “We have fun!” “Dreary Nonsense” is both fiery and goofy, which means it’s great. “The Fizz” is one of those older tracks they haven’t played in a while, and it has a great call-and-response chorus and fun keyboard dexterity from Dolas.

“Corrupt Coffin” and “Together Tomorrow,” both each under two minutes, blend together like a punk cocktail made out of Red Bull, sweat, vodka, and highly caffeinated Earl Grey tea. “Night Crawler” is pure psychedelic fuzz to lull you into a smoky headspace. You take a breath, and then “Terminal Jape” comes around the corner to mug you and then shove you into oncoming traffic. “The system has been broken down!” Dwyer grunts as the whole band turns into a tsunami. “Rainbow” slows things down a bit, but it’s almost a feint because “Heart Worm” is a straight-up punk boot to the head. “The world’s so fucked up!” Dwyer sings. It’s hard to argue with him if you watch the news.

The band pauses a moment before “Transparent World Jam” melts your mind and perhaps your body into lava lamp ooze. As Oh Sees like to do, they end with a mostly instrumental jam. This one is the nearly twelve-minute-long “Block of Ice” – a track that reminds you of Zappa, Allman Brothers, 13th Floor Elevators, and My Bloody Valentine all at once.

Few things can top the energy of a live Oh Sees show, and capturing that energy in a recording is a colossal feat. Levitation Sessions sounds great and the record’s mastering by J.J. Golden cannot be understated. This is a nice appetizer for, hopefully, many more live shows to come.

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