My friend and I arrived at Chicago’s Salt Shed (the former Morton’s Salt factory) too late to catch The Steens, mainly due to chilly weather and heavy traffic, but we made it in plenty of time to see Viagra Boys. The venue is pretty damn big, and they packed the place in a near sold-out show that lead singer Sebastian Murphy said might’ve been their biggest show in the United States.
They certainly brought the energy to back that claim, opening with a pounding version of “I Ain’t No Thief” that had beer cans and water cups flying everywhere over the large main crowd floor. Following that with “Ain’t Nice” was like pouring gasoline on a fire.
The crowd was jumping, yelling, singing and even sometimes dumbfounded as Viagra Boys ripped through old and new tracks and sometimes wandered into weird psychedelia, including a Captain Beefheart-like saxophone solo by Oscar Carls.
Other highlights included the crowd favorites “Sports” and “Troglodyte” (which had everyone chanting), the graphic deep cut “Liquids” (which Murphy admitted, on stage, is “a song about getting peed on.”), a trippy version of “Creepy Crawlers,” and a long, wild version of “Shrimp Shack” to close out the main set. It was also cool to hear “Worms” during the encore, as it’s a sharp song about impermanence but almost a relaxing tonic before “Research Chemicals” hits you in the face.
They set a high bar for bands the rest of the year. Enjoy the chaos with them if you get a chance.
Dry Cleaning, photographed in Max Miechowski’s studio in Tottenham, London, on 09/27/2022.
Stumpwork, the sophomore LP from Dry Cleaning, “vibrantly expand[ed] Dry Cleaning’s core sound” (Pitchfork), and became one of last year’s most acclaimed releases, garnering year-end praise from Rolling Stone, Sound Opinions, Uproxx, and many more. Following their performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the UK outfit announce Swampy, a new EP composed of two previously unreleased tracks from the Stumpwork sessions, remixes and a demo, out March 1st on 4AD, and unveil two bonus tracks, “Swampy” and “Sombre Two.” Of the additions, the band says: “These two songs (‘Swampy’ and ‘Sombre Two’) were recorded in the Stumpwork sessions and they feel like good companions to us. They share a dusty, desolate and spacey atmosphere. On the eve of this release we have been touring through the southwest US, where these songs feel at home in the arid, Mars-like landscape of the Arizona desert.”
Also featured on Swampy are remixes from Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul, recently featured in Pitchfork’s “25 New and Rising Artists Shaping the Future of Music in 2023,” and Nourished By Time, who supported Dry Cleaning on their recently-wrapped North American tour. Swampy will be released digitally and as a limited edition cassette (band store only). Tonight, Dry Cleaning will begin the UK/EU leg of their Stumpwork tour, with full dates listed below. Tickets are on sale now.
DRY CLEANING TOUR DATES Tue. Feb. 21 – Nottingham, UK @ Rock City Wed Feb. 22 – Sheffield, UK @ The Foundry Fri. Feb. 24 – Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall Sat. Feb. 25 – Birmingham, UK @ O2 Institute Sun. Feb. 26 – Bristol, UK @ O2 Academy Tue. Feb. 28 – Cardiff, UK @ Tramshed Wed. March 1 – Brighton, UK @ Chalk – SOLD OUT Fri. March 3 – London, UK @ Roundhouse Mon. Mar. 13 – Copenhagen, DK @ VEGA Wed. Mar. 15 – Stockholm, SE @ Debaser Strand Thu. Mar. 16 – Oslo, NO @ Parkteatret Sat. Mar. 18 – Hamburg, DE @ Knust Sun. Mar. 19 – Groningen, NL @ Vera – SOLD OUT Mon. Mar. 20 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso Tue. March 22 – Offenbach, DE @ Hafen2 Thu. Mar. 23 – Munich, DE @ Strom Fri. Mar. 24 – Vienna, AT @ Flex Sat. Mar. 25 – Prague, CZ @ Futurum Mon. Mar. 27 – Warsaw, PL @ Hybrydy Tue. Mar. 28- Leipzig, DE @ UT Connewitz Wed. Mar. 29 – Berlin, DE @ Festsaal Kreuzberg Fri. Mar. 31 – Rotterdam, NL @ Maassilo Sat. Apr. 1 – Antwerp, BE @ Trix Sat. Aug. 26 – Domaine National de Saint-Cloud, FR @ Rock En Seine
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.
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 sospecial. 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
Keep your mind open.
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Today, shame — the UK-based quintet led by frontman Charlie Steen — unveil “Six-Pack,” the newsingle/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.”
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.”
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
Keep your mind open.
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I’d been trying to see Dry Cleaning in concert for a couple years. I was always missing their Chicago sets due to work, and then they had to cancel their appearance at the 2022 Levitation France festival. Now, they and I were finally going to be in Chicago on the same day, so I wasn’t going to miss the show. I’m glad I bought my ticket early, because it was a sold-out performance. I didn’t arrive in time to see Nourished By Time, but Dry Cleaning came out and wasted no time in engaging with their passionate fans.
Starting with “Kwenchy Kups” and then rolling straight into their ode to a lost tortoise (“Gary Ashby”), Dry Cleaning put on a fascinating set. Lead singer Florence Shaw isn’t the most dynamic front woman out there, but that’s kind of the point. She’s the calm in the storm whipped up by her bandmates. Her low tones aren’t without passion, but she’s more of a storyteller than a singer. “Scratchcard Lanyard” and “Viking Hair” are hits not only for Tom Dowse‘s screeching guitar licks (which sound like Andy Gill riffs live), but also for Shaw’s tales of strange things that are so weird that they have to be at least partially true.
There were moments in the show, like in the above image, when Shaw, dressed in her sweatshirt and baggy jeans, and with her straight long hair and perfect fingernails, looked like a wraith in the lights and smoke on stage. This, combined with her smoky voice, and Lewis Maynard‘s thumping bass, was a cool effect – especially during tracks like “Don’t Press Me” and “Conservative Hell.”
Nick Buxton keeps the whole thing from devolving into a spooky haunted house ride by putting down post-punk precision drumming (“Magic of Meghan” being a prime example). The encore included a song Dry Cleaning doesn’t play often, as it’s still fairly new, “Liberty Log.” It was a special treat for all of us.
The whole show was a special treat for their fans. Plenty were dancing, cheering, shouting lyrics, and going wild with every buzzsaw solo Dowse played. It was a good start to my 2023 concert season.
Here we are at the top five albums I reviewed in 2022. It was a great year for music, and these are what stood out for me among all the good stuff out there.
As I’ve mentioned before, 2022 was a great year for electronic music, and this EP from Jacques Greene topped my list of that kind of music. It mixes house, drum and bass, ambient, and a bit of synth wave into a luscious brew.
This reissue of classic gospel funk tracks by The Staples Jr. Singers is stunning. The amount of groove and friskiness in these songs is almost overwhelming. The instrumentation and harmonizing are outstanding, and there’s enough soul for two churches.
This is the best post-punk album I heard all year. Everything on it is razor sharp: the wit, the guitar angles, the grooves, the drum sounds, and the slightly snarled tongue-in-cheek vocals.
The Black Angels‘ new album was a great return for them. It explores the stress of modern times through walls of distorted guitars, reverb-laden vocals, powerful drums, and mind-warping sound. The Black Angels have yet to put out a bad record, but this one somehow set the bar even higher for psych-bands to follow.
#1: A Place to Bury Strangers – See Through You
A Place to Bury Strangers came back with a new lineup and some of Oliver Ackermann‘s most revealing lyrics about the end of friendships, loneliness, grief, over-reliance on technology, and the overall anxiety everyone’s been feeling since 2019. Ackermann put it all out there and walloped us with more honesty and distortion that you can almost stand.
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!
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.’”
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
