Shoegaze – Page 4 – 7th Level Music

Slowdive announces 2024 North American tour.

Earlier this year, Slowdive released everything is alive, their first record since 2017’s self-titled album and first record with Dead Oceans. The record was met with critical and commercial acclaim, garnering praise from the likes of Vulture (“hypnotically gorgeous”), Billboard (“a dreamy yet taut melding of their strengths”), Brooklyn Vegan (“perhaps the best record of their career”), and more. On the heels of their sold-out fall U.S. tour, Slowdive have announced they’ll be returning to the US for a spring North American tour next year. Including the already sold out Sick New World festival in Las Vegas, they’ll play many cities not yet played in support of everything is alive: Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, New Orleans, and more.

As the Chicago Tribune commented, “Experimental and shimmery, [everything is alive] packs a lush and enigmatic punch. Don’t take their latest releases and live shows for granted. Who knows when this influential band will be back in town?” Tickets for all shows will be on sale Friday, December 8th at 10AM local time and more information can be found here.

Slowdive Tour Dates
(new dates in bold)

Tue. Jan. 16 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
Wed. Jan. 17 – Paris, FR @ La Cigale
Thu. Jan. 18 – Cologne, DE @ Live Music Hall
Sat. Jan. 20 – Hamburg, DE @ Grosse Freiheit 36
Sun. Jan. 21 – Copenhagen, DK @ VEGA
Mon. Jan. 22 – Oslo, NO @ Sentrum Scene
Tue. Jan. 23 – Stockholm, SE @ Munchenbryggeriet
Wed. Jan. 24 – Copenhagen, DK @ VEGA
Thu. Jan. 25 – Berlin, DE @ Columbiahalle
Sat. Jan. 27 – Warsaw, PL @ Progresja
Sun. Jan. 28 – Prague, CZ @ Divaldo Archa
Mon. Jan. 29 – Munich, DE @ Muffathalle
Tue. Jan. 30 – Zurich, CH @ Volkshaus
Wed. Jan. 31 – Milan, IT @ Alcatraz Club
Fri. Feb. 2 – Bologna, IT @ Estragon Club
Sun. Feb. 4 – Lyon, FR @ La Transbordeur
Mon. Feb. 5 – Barcelona, ES @ Razzmatazz
Tue. Feb. 6 – Madrid, ES @ La Riviera
Thu. Feb. 8 – Brussels, BE @ Cirque Royale
Fri. Feb. 16 – Brighton, UK @ Brighton Dome
Sat. Feb. 17 – London, UK @ Eventim Apollo
Sun. Feb. 18 – Birmingham, UK @ O2 Institute Birmingham
Mon. Feb. 19 – Norwich, UK @ LCR UEA
Wed. Feb. 21 – Liverpool, UK @ O2 Academy Liverpool
Thu. Feb. 22 – Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK @ NX
Fri. Feb. 23 – Glasgow, UK @ Barrowland Ballroom
Sat. Feb. 24 – Edinburgh, UK @ Liquid Room
Mon. Feb. 26 – Cardiff, UK @ Cardiff University Great Hall
Tue. Feb. 27 – Manchester, UK @ Manchester Academy
Mon. Mar. 11 – Tokyo, JP @ Toyosu Pit
Wed. Mar. 13 – Osaka, JP @ Namba Hatch
Thu. Apr. 25 – Ventura, CA @ The Majestic Ventura Theater
Fri. Apr. 26 – Pomona,CA @ The Fox Theater Pomona
Sat. Apr. 27 – Las Vegas, NV @ Sick New World Festival
Sun. Apr. 28 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren
Tue. Apr. 30 – Albuquerque, NM @ The Historic El Rey Theater
Wed. May 1 – Denver, CO @ Levitt Pavilion Denver
Fri. May 3 – Kansas City, MO @ The Truman
Sat. May 4 – St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
Sun. May 5 – Indianapolis, IN @ Egyptian Room at Old National Centre
Tue. May 7 – Louisville, KY @ Old Forester’s Paristown Hall
Wed. May 8 – Pelham, TN @ The Caverns
Fri. May 10 – Dallas, TX @ Longhorn Ballroom
Sat. May 11 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall
Sun. May 12 – Austin, TX @ ACL Live at The Moody Theater
Tue. May 14 – New Orleans, LA @ The Civic Theatre
Thu. May 16 – Birmingham, AL @ Avondale Brewing Company
Fri. May 17 – Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern
Sun. May 18 – Asheville, NC @ Rabbit Rabbit

Purchase everything is alive
Watch “alife” Video
Watch “kisses” Video
Watch “skin in the game” Visualizer
Watch “the slab” Video

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[Thanks to Jaycee at Pitch Perfect PR.]

A Place to Bury Strangers announces European tour dates.

A Place to Bury Strangers are gearing up to crush Europe in April 2024 with shows ranging from the Netherlands to France. Don’t miss them if you’re in any of these cities. Heck, make a trip to see them while you’re are it. You won’t regret it.

They’re also doing a New Year’s Eve DJ set in Brooklyn!

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Steven Matrick.]

Drop Nineteens release final single, “The Price Was High,” from their first new album in thirty years.

In a little over two weeks Drop Nineteens will release their first LP in 3 decades. Entitled Hard Light(out November 3rd on Wharf Cat Records), the album has been billed as a spiritual successor to the band’s watershed 1992 LP Delaware, and album that is considered one of the most influential shoegaze records ever released. It was announced with a single called “Scapa Flow” which Stereogum called “magnificent,” and appeared on Pitchfork’s “Most Anticipated Albums of The Fall” list, where they said that the band “have picked up right where they left off all those years ago” alongside further praise from outlets like FADER, Consequence, and BrooklynVegan.

Today, the band are sharing a final preview of the LP, a track called “The Price Was High.”

When Drop Nineteens disbanded in the mid 90s, Greg Ackell decided he would never make music again. He wouldn’t noodle around on a guitar in the basement. He wouldn’t get a group of friends together just to jam. He was done with music entirely. Following the release of the shoegaze masterpiece Delaware in 1992, and the intricate experimentations on National Coma in 1993, the group disbanded. They had a great run. They shared stages with Radiohead, Hole, Blur, PJ Harvey and Smashing Pumpkins. They went from being teenaged kids in Boston to mid-twenty-somethings with videos on MTV, sessions on the BBC, world tours and numerous festivals under their belt. So when Drop Nineteens ceased to be, Ackell felt content. He had the rest of his life in front of him to figure out what he wanted to do. Music was a closed chapter.

That was until 2021, when a friend from the band’s early days got Greg on the phone to suggest making some music together, just to see how it felt. Instead of shutting it down like he had been doing over the years, he decided to entertain the prospect. For the first time in nearly 30 years, he picked up a guitar with intent. He immediately called up Steve Zimmeran, the band’s bassist and fellow guitarist, and the two got writing. It felt effortless for Ackell, like he never stopped writing music. “We were off to the races,” he says, “But also the question came up: What does a modern Drop Nineteens song sound like?” Enter Hard Light, the band’s stunning third record. To quote Ackell, it’s the band’s proverbial follow up to Delaware, a modern Drop Nineteens record that is completely singular in its sound and vision.
The first task in making Hard Light, was of course, getting the rest of the band back together. Drop Nineteens is an inherently collaborative project. Ackell writes the lyrics, and he works with band members Zimmerman, Paula Kelley, Motohiro Yasue, and Peter Koeplin to create the sonic world. The record came together over the course of a year, recording at a patchwork of studios all around the country: Boston, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. When Kelley and Ackell first heard their vocals recorded together on the opus album closer “T”, the chemistry was undeniable. Making music together felt natural, fluid, exciting.

Hard Light is a romantic record in the literary sense. Beauty from longing; longing from beauty. You put the album on and want to be clad in a velvet dress sprawled across a fainting couch. You want to be holding someone’s hand while you sit back in the tall grass. The guitars are expansive and expressive as ever. Ackell and Kelley’s vocals are cool, crystalline, and luminous. “Gal” comes on like a dream. The vocals pour in when you least expect them, once in the middle, where Ackell delivers one of the strangest (and best) lyrics on the record, “And there were snakes/with cats at the wheel.” Hard Light’s first single, “Scapa Flow” is triumphant and an excellent example of what a modern day Drop Nineteens song sounds like. The guitars glide cloud-like, floor toms shuffle and rumble in the background, searching. Ackell and Kelley’s vocals are as toned as they are bound. Hard Light is every bit the ride that Delaware was, diverse in its sounds, with surprises at every turn. Drop Nineteens have brought clarity and cool in 2023 to the genre they helped create. A portrait of a band 30 years later, as talented and dedicated to their craft as ever. To put it more bluntly, they’re at the top of their game.

Drop Nineteens Hard Light is available for preorder HERE

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[Thanks to Tom at Terrorbird Media.]

Review: Melody Fields – 1901

I don’t know what’s in the water in Sweden nowadays, but it might be bringing people’s minds to higher states of consciousness and thus causing many of them to form cool bands – like Gothenburg’s psychedelic rockers Melody Fields and their new album 1901.

The album is full of stunning touches and haunting moments – not spooky, creepy haunting moments, mind you. The moments are almost like having groovy ghosts of a deceased psych-band who crashed their van on their European tour in 1969 and now hitch rides with travelers and get them into weird adventures. “Going Back” throws you back into the psychedelic era right away, making you wonder if Melody Fields has someone dropped you through a time portal.

“Jesus” is described by the band as “a profound experience that delves into the complexities of spirituality and personal connections, leaving an indelible mark on the listener’s consciousness. “Jesus” is not just a song; it’s a musical experience that transcends boundaries…” I can’t describe it better than that. The only thing I can add is that it reveals the band’s love of shoegaze and shows how that genre and psych-rock are pretty much brothers from another mother / sisters from another mister.

“It’s the end, and soon you will die,” they sing on “Rave On,” in which they join most of their fellow psych-rockers by melting your brain while performing a song about the inevitability of death…so why worry about it? Keep raving, dancing, and exploring.

In case you were wondering, why yes, Melody Fields likes synthwave as well, as evidenced on the instrumental “Mellanväsen” (“Middle Vase”). They take those synths and then pair them up with guitars that buzz like some kind of giant robotic hornet on the mostly instrumental “Transatlantic.” You probably could hear the guitars across the Atlantic if you cranked your speaker volume to the max. The band worked with Swedish psych-voodoo giants GOAT on parts of the album (and Austin, Texas’ psych-groovers Holy Wave), and GOAT’s touches are immediately apparent on “Home at Last” – which hits you with all kinds of wild world sounds.

The heavy bass on “Indian MC” mixes well with the sitar-like guitar (or is that an actual sitar? It’s played so well that you can’t tell either way.) chords to evoke riding across Europe with a lover and no particular agenda apart from escaping workplace drudgery. “It takes two, and I want you. Now it’s time for you to choose,” they sing on “In Love” – which rocks hard and will probably make Black Rebel Motorcycle Club a bit envious when they hear it. It’s the kind of track that would make a good show opener because it’s an instant rocker that gets your attention and shakes the walls. The closing track, “Mayday,” sends the album out on a floating note with soft percussion and music box-like guitars (even if one of the music boxes is winding down and perhaps cursed).

1901 is one of the best psych-rock records I’ve heard so far this year, and Melody Fields is already planning to release another one, 1991, on November 10, 2023. Don’t miss either of them.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Thomas of Melody Fields!]

The Fauns return after a decade with a new single (and soon a new album) – “How Lost.”

After a decade-long hiatus, Bristol-based shoegaze ensemble, The Fauns, have reemerged from their secret bunker with their first new music in ten years with new single “How Lost”, which is out now via Invada. The band have also announced their first live show since 2015 with a date at The Cavendish Arms in December.

“How Lost” on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNhvidksrG8&feature=youtu.be
“How Lost” on other streaming services: https://lnk.to/Q0vT8aJK

The Fauns’ journey began in 2007, self-releasing their eponymous debut album in 2009, followed by the 2013 release of “Lights.” These two works garnered warm acclaim from both critics a fervent shoegaze-loving fanbase alike – rekindled by the return of My Bloody Valentine.

Reflecting on their earlier work, Michael Savage shares: “Listening back, the first album serves as a diary chronicling our evolution from utter novices in the recording process to becoming proficient. The second album signified a solidification of The Fauns sound. I try my best to remain partially idiotic about recording. The idiosyncrasy is part of our sound; we’re not aiming for excessive polish.”

Throughout the 2010s, the band toured relentlessly across Europe, sharing the stage with Creation label act The Telescopes for a number of shows. A European support tour with French doomgazers Alcest broadened The Fauns’ reach, and during this period they recorded sessions for Radio 6 and Xfm, even winning Steve Lamacq’s coveted Rebel Playlist accolade.

“How Lost” sees the band return led by three original members: Michael Savage, Alison Garner, and Guy Rhys Davies. In 2019, accomplished soundtrack composer Will Slater joined the band, catalyzing an intensified period of songwriting. The push and pull between Savage and Slater’s recording styles producing interesting and unique results. “How Lost” is taken from the band’s upcoming album, to be announced soon.

See The Fauns live:
7th December – The Cavendish Arms, London

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Frankie at Stereo Sanctity.]

Review: Slowdive – everything is alive

Shoegaze legends Slowdive decided they wanted to scale back the electronics and push more of the reverb-heavy guitars on their newest album, everything is alive. It’s a powerful decision, one made as two members of the band were grieving the loss of a parent in 2020 and trying to make sense of a world that pretty much went crazy for about two years. The album’s cover, depicting a shrouded woman in the middle of a labyrinth, captures everyone’s feelings during those years – but it also shows a way out of the maze. There was hope back then and even now.

The album starts, oddly enough, with some of the electronic beats that singer and guitarist Neil Halstead originally wanted to scale back on “shanty,” and you’re thinking, “Wait, is this going to be an electro record?” Then, the crunchy, roaring guitars step into the room and take over the whole space. “prayer remembered” is the kind of beautiful, floating track that Slowdive pull off seemingly without effort. It’s perfect for lonely drives, morning walks, lonely moments in your living room, still silences in the kitchen when you feel a ghost behind you…

Rachel Goswell‘s vocal sounds start “alife” with spooky atmospherics and then become bright and lovely during the chorus (as do the guitars from her and Halstead). “andalusia plays” ups the acoustic guitar and lets Nick Chaplin‘s bass simmer under Halstead’s vocals and lyrics about a memorable winter night. “kisses” blends shoegaze with synthwave to create a radio-friendly future hit.

“skin in the game” ups the vocal echo effects and the guitar reverb, resulting in an ethereal track that will make you drift out of your skin and up to the ceiling. “chained to a cloud” is aptly named, as the mostly instrumental track makes you feel like you’re drifting across the sky and seeing the landscape below you change as the world revolves and the sun cuts through the cloud to which you’re attached. Closing with the uplifting track entitled “the slab,” Slowdive take a phrase / object often associated with death (i.e., a body on a slab in a morgue) and make it something from which we can all rise – the slab of a bed tangled in sheets from unrestful sleep, the slab of a work desk, the slab of gray pavement during our work commute – we can rise from them and above them and remember that everything is alive. We are alive. We are part of everything, and that life, the life of the universe, really, is not only in us, but is created by us.

Thanks, Slowdive, for reminding us of this.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

The Veldt announces U.S. tour and release of their shelved 1989 debut album.

As they approach the release of their ‘Illuminated 1989’ album, the original 1989 full-length record produced by Cocteau Twins’ Robin Guthrie, trailblazing soul-influenced shoegazers The Veldt announce North American tour dates and also present the single ‘Aurora Borealis’ with Elizabeth Fraser making a cameo appearance on backing vocals towards the end. Complementing this is the B-side remix, created by The Veldt around the turn of the century.

This is the second single from the album, which Guthrie produced in autumn 1989 and has now remastered for vinyl. While intended to be the band’s first album, their label Capitol Records shelved the recording and sent them back into the studio with producer Lincoln Fong (Moose), resulting in their first album released with the title ‘Marigolds’.

Earlier, the band released the lead track ‘The Everlasting Gobstopper’ digitally (with a video produced by Jammi York and the late Yuko Sueta) and on vinyl, involving a B-side previously unreleased vinyl exclusive ‘Joshuu Lullaby’, also recently produced by Guthrie.

One of the most notable first-wave shoegaze bands, formed in North Carolina in the 1980s, The Veldt surrounds identical twins Daniel Chavis (vocals, guitar) and Danny Chavis (guitar). Their unique sound was influenced by Cocteau Twins as readily as Marvin Gaye and free-jazz warriors Sun Ra and Pharaoh Sanders. Referencing European post-punk while embracing modern hip-hop, these trailblazers work with transient dreamscapes as fluidly as solid song structures.

Pitchfork included The Veldt’s album ‘Afrodisiac’, produced by the legendary Ray Shulman (The Sundays, Bjork, The Sugarcubes) and released via Mercury Records, in the top 50 shoegaze albums ever released, while Stereogum included ‘Until You’re Forever’ in the top 31 shoegaze tracks. Their sound also inspired future generations of alternative artists, including TV On the Radio.

Daniel Chavis on their inspiration for ‘Aurora Borealis’: “This song is about my brother’s love for his newborn daughter. Written out of high school and dug out around the time the band had started to get noticed. We had written so many, but it was one of the newest pieces that we had begun experimenting. This would signal our departure from being a band that made people dance to a band that made people confused. ‘The Everlasting Gobstopper’ came shortly thereafter and was being finished.”

Danny Chavis adds, “This song was written in 1986 and was included in the first batch of songs we demoed under the name VELDT. Having heard ‘Treasure’ by Cocteau Twins, this song was inspired by that very album and RUN DMC’s ‘Sucker MC’s’ around the same time that year.”

The Veldt’s journey is fascinating. Performing since they were children, the Chavis brothers’ musical roots lead back to the church and southern juke-joints, and listening to music that included gospel, Motown and Pink Floyd. The Veldt formed in the late 80’s in Raleigh amongst the legendary North Carolina music scene of the time, initially signing with Mammoth Records – leading to a chain of major-label relationships that took the group across Europe and the U.S. playing shows with the likes of Throwing Muses, Pixies, Cocteau Twins and Jesus & Mary Chain.

After moving from Raleigh to New York, they briefly performed as Apollo Heights before returning to their original name The Veldt. Joined by Japanese bassist-programmer Hayato Nakao, they together forging music that is a heady and sensual blend of shoegaze and progressive soul, dreamy soundscapes and infectious grooves. Some of the band’s recent notable releases include ‘The Shocking Fuzz Of Your Electric Fur’ EP (2017) and the album ‘Entropy is the Mainline to God’ (2022).

Over the years, The Veldt has collaborated with TV On The Radio, Mos Def, Lady Miss Kier (Deee-Lite), A.R.Kane and toured or played with Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Pixies, Throwing Muses, Echo & The Bunnymen, Cocteau Twins, Manic Street Preachers, Phantogram, Modern English, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Oasis, Chuck D, Living Colour and Schooly D.

‘Aurora Borealis’ is now available everywhere, including Apple Music, Spotify and Bandcamp. On November 24, the ‘Illuminated 1989’ album will be released on vinyl, CD, cassette and digitally via Portland-based Little Cloud Records and 5BC Records. From October through December, The Veldt will be touring many cities and will be performing at Levitation Festival in Austin and Seattle’s KEXP, as well as playing several exclusive dates supporting Violent Femmes.

TOUR DATES
SAT 10/21 = Norfolk, VA @ the NorVa w/ Violent Femmes
SUN 10/22 = Richmond, VA @ the National w/ Violent Femmes
MON 10/23 = Asheville, NC @ TBA
TUE 10/24 = Nashville, TN @ the Underdog
WED 10/25 = Memphis, TN @ Growlers
THU 10/26 = Little Rock, AR @ EJ’s Drinks and Eats
FRI 10/27 = Dallas, TX @ TBA
SAT 10/28 = Austin, TX @ the Far Out Lounge (LEVITATION Festival)
MON 11/27 = Atlanta, GA @ 529
TUE 11/28 = Birmingham, AL @ TBA
WED 11/29 = New Orleans, LA @ Gasa Gasa
THU 11/30 = Houston, TX @ 1810 Ojeman
FRI 12/1 = Austin, TX @ Hotel Vegas
SAT 12/2 = Silver City, NM @ Whiskey Creek Zocalo w/ Tremours
SUN 12/3 = Phoenix, AZ @ Linger Longer Lounge w/ Tremours
MON 12/4 = San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar w/ Tremours
TUE 12/5 = Los Angeles, CA @ Gold Diggers w/ Tremours
WED 12/6 = San Francisco, CA @ Kilowatt w/ Tremours
THU 12/7 = Portland, OR @ Show Bar w/ Tremours
FRI 12/8 = Seattle, WA @ the Central Saloon (TremoloFest) w/ Tremours
SAT 12/9 = Vancouver, BC @ TBA
SUN 12/10 = Bellingham, WA @ The Shakedown w/ Tremours)
MON 12/11 = Eugene, OR @ Old Nick’s w/ Tremours
TUE 12/12 = Olympia, WA @ Le Voyeur w/ Tremours
WED 12/13 = Tacoma, WA @ TBA
THU 12/14 = Seattle, WA @ KEXP

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Shauna at Shameless Promotion PR.]

Review: Club Coma (self-titled)

Hailing from Austin, Texas and playing sold-out shows before they even released any music, Club Coma (Geoff Earle – synth, bass, and vocals, Scott Martin – guitar and vocals, and Aaron Perez – drums) play a neat mix of experimental rock, dance rock, and shoegaze on their debut, self-titled album.

Opener “Give Me a Chance” sounds like something Thundercat might cook up, and I’m sure he’ll be jealous that he didn’t create something so funky when he hears it. “The Mirror” has a bit of a dance-punk sound to it, and “New Cruelty” even adds goth-synth touches. “I’m frightened of my TV screen. I’m scared of the things it’ll do to me. I’m scared of the phone in my pocket. I keep checking, and I don’t know how to stop it,” Martin sings on “TV Screen.” Seriously, dude, we’re all with you on this (and the addictive beats of the song only help the imagery).

“I went through that bad shit, and now I’m immune,” they sing on “Immune,” an empowering track that has Perez knocking out a steady beat perfect for your bicycling playlist, Earle getting his groovy synth groove groovin’, and Martin reminding us that we’ve come through a lot in the past few years, and we can, and should, think of ourselves as bad asses from this day forward.

Their cover of The James Gang‘s “Collage” is sharp. They turn it into a synthwave stunner. “It hit me hard like a lightning bolt,” they sing at the start of “Anesthesia,” a song that might be about addiction, or it might be about, finally, getting a rest after all the stuff mentioned in “Immune.” The looping string section in it takes the track up a few notches. It’s a wild touch. “Keep It Together” gets dreamy for the final song, making you feel like the gentleman on the cover, an image of a modern Icarus, falling into the arms of people who seem happy to see him. You’re falling, or perhaps floating, into a calmer state in that club where being in a coma for a little while might do you good.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Dave at US / THEM Group.]

Shoegaze legends Drop Nineteens drop their first single in 30 years.

It was almost 30 years ago when Drop Nineteens disbanded. They had released their shoegaze masterpiece Delaware in 1992, and shared stages with bands like Radiohead, Hole, Blur, PJ Harvey and Smashing Pumpkins. They went from being teenagers in Boston to mid-twenty-somethings with videos on MTV, sessions on the BBC, world tours and numerous festival appearances under their belt. So when Drop Nineteens ceased to be, their lead singer and songwriter Greg Ackell felt content. He had the rest of his life in front of him to figure out what he wanted to do. Music was a closed chapter.

In the decades that followed, despite the band’s turn away from the spotlight, Drop Nineteens’ legacy grew. Delaware came to be considered a classic of the genre, landing on lists of the greatest shoegaze albums of all time, with Pitchfork saying that “Delawareset Drop Nineteens squarely in a league of their own” on their run down of the genre’s best albums. The band’s catalog also found a new life on streaming, where tracks like “Winona” and “Kick The Tragedy” have racked up millions of streams and reached a new audience, becoming a touchstone influence for the new wave of American shoegaze.

It was in this context that in 2021 a friend from the band’s early days got Ackell on the phone to suggest making some music together, just to see how it felt. Instead of shutting it down like he had been doing over the years, he decided to entertain the prospect. For the first time in nearly 30 years, he picked up a guitar with intent.

Today, Drop Nineteens are announcing their official return. The full original line up of Ackell, Steve Zimmerman, Paula Kelley, Motohiro Yasue, and Peter Koeplin has reunited to create a new album entitled Hard Light (out November 3rd on Wharf Cat Records), the band’s 3rd official LP and the spiritual successor to Delaware. To mark the announce the band are sharing the first single from the album, a track called “Scapa Flow”, and Ackell and Kelley have spoken to Stereogum about the band’s history, their unlikely reunion, and their comeback LP.

“The intent on Delaware was to reflect that time in our lives, which I think it did accurately,” says Ackell. “Having considered Delaware before embarking on Hard Light, we wanted to make an honest, reflective album representing who we are now, which is, well, older.

“I’ve been struggling to find an answer to the question ‘why now?’ What was the catalyst for getting back together after so long? The best answer I can come up with is this was the first moment in my life since stopping making music that I got curious to hear what Drop Nineteens might sound like now. And there was only one way to find out!”

In support of the new LP Drop Nineteens are announcing a series of fall tour dates in major US markets with support from Horse Jumper of Love, Greg Mendez and Winter.Full details can be found below.

Drop Nineteens Hard Light is available for preorder HERE

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Tom at Terrorbird Media.]

The Mary Onettes return with a new double single – “Forever Before Love / Future Grief.”

Swedish indie-pop masterminds The Mary Onettes return with a new double single, “Forever Before Love” b/w “Future Grief” on Welfare Sounds. These songs mark a return to the dreamy, overcast pop that has been The Mary Onettes’ trademark since first forming over 20 years ago, reiterating the signature craft that has put their music in the hearts of indie-pop connoisseurs around the world.

“‘Forever Before Love” is about finding the way back to yourself after a very long relationship. The process of trying to connect with the person you were before that,” explains The Mary Onettes’ main song writer Philip Ekström.

While “Future Grief” contains a guest appearance from Adnes Aldén, a close friend of brothers Philip and his brother Henri Ekström, an addition that gives the song an extra vocal dimension. “This track has been around for quite some time. We recorded the vocals with Agnes in 2016 and we have been waiting eagerly to share this one. Agnes wrote the lyrics for the verse and I wrote the words for the choruses, which gives the story a nice two angel perspective.”

Following the release of “Forever Before Love” b/w “Future Grief”, The Mary Onettes will embark on a headlining tour of Sweden, and perform a homecoming festival show in Huskvarna, before starting to work on their upcoming album.

The Mary Onettes formed in 2000 and quickly gained a devoted following with their unique brand of indie-pop, drawing comparisons to bands like The Smiths and Echo & the Bunnymen. Over the years, they’ve released a string of critically acclaimed albums and singles, earning praise from publications like Pitchfork and NME. Although development is crucial for a band, one thing has remained the same — the songs. The band revolves around Philip’s songwriting and although some songs have been stripped down, rebuilt or even thrown away throughout the years, they have kept coming.

With the recent release of the singles “What I Feel in Some Places” and “Easy Hands,” as well as the long-awaited vinyl treatment of their 2018 smash hit Cola Falls EP, The Mary Onettes have gained both creative momentum and international praise.

Keep your mind open.

[I’ll be in future grief if you don’t subscribe.]

[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]