Month: November 2016

Scattered Hamlet – Swamp Rebel Machine

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Looking for hard rock best suited for running moonshine or chugging it? Look no further than Scattered Hamlet (Richard Erwin – bass and vocals, Adam Joad – vocals, harmonica, and guitar, Jake Deling Le Bas – drums, percussion, and vocals, Adam Newell – lead and slide guitars, vocals) and their new album Swamp Rebel Machine. The interior art features a rendition of the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag, but the logo has been changed to “Don’t fuck with me.” It’s a theme evident in the opening track, “Battle Hymn,” and the instrumentation is indeed not something with which to fuck.

“Whip-Poor-Will” hits as hard as any Zeke track (especially Erwin’s bass groove). “Stonewall Jackson” starts with a conversation between two pals – one of who would rather watch The Dukes of Hazzard than get laid. I can’t help but wonder if this is based on a real conversation one of the band members with someone. Newell shreds on it, by the way.

“Four Barrel Mojo” is dirty honkytonk rock. “White Trash” grooves so well that the Donnas might smash a couple guitars in “Why didn’t we come up with that lick?” rage. The title track is the first single off the record. It’s a good choice since it sums up the band’s ethos (hard-workin’, hard-rockin’, hard-drinkin’, school of hard knocks graduates). “Green Bastard” has some of Le Bas’ hardest and funkiest drumming on the record. Joad salutes his grandmother on “Outlaw Breed” (“Grandma taught me nothing’s guaranteed except the hillbilly pride and the outlaw breed.”).

“Rimfire” reminds me of good hair metal, which is an elusive beast these days. “Buckshot” could be a lost Nashville Pussy track, and I love the way Joad’s vocals border on screams for a lot of it. The closer is “The Lesson,” which ends the album on a metal note that would make Clutch proud. Newell goes for broke on it, and I love the drum and bass breakdown near the end.

Swamp Rebel Machine is a good, dirty, gritty, heavy rock record. We need this kind of “Don’t fuck with me” rock right now. People are pissed and making their voices heard, and they could very well be playing this record in their earbuds as they march or mosh.

Keep your mind open.

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King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard to release five albums in 2017.

kgatlw

Australian psych-rock workhorses King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard have pledged to release five albums in 2017.  The band is already prolific and this feat, if they can do it, will make them legendary.

The first album is Flying Microtonal Banana.  It’s named after a guitar made for lead singer / guitarist Stu Mackenzie by a friend.  The guitar has extra frets on it so he and the other band members (who also have customized guitars) can play 24 notes per octave rather than 12.  Sounds crazy?  Wait until you hear it on the first single – “Rattlesnake.”

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Bleached – Ride Your Heart (2013)

bleached-ryh

Ride Your Heart from Bleached (Jennifer Clavin – vocals, guitar, piano, percussion, Jennifer Clavin – guitar, bass, vocals, percussion, lap steel, Dan Allaire – drums) is a great, California sun-soaked pop-punk record about looking for love. The lead track, “Looking for a Fight,” has Jennifer Clavin warning a potential suitor to back off, but the following track, “Next Stop,” is about tearful goodbyes at the train station. Both have excellent guitar work by Jennifer and her sister, Jessica.

“Outta My Mind” has lovely vocals from both Clavins and instrumentation taking the album briefly into psychedelic territory. Jennifer Clavin goes back to wishing love would stay away from her and stop complicating everything, but it’s too good to avoid. However, when we get to “Dead in Your Head,” she roasts her ex for screwing up the great thing they had. She apologizes for her own bad behavior on “Dreaming without You,” in which she sings, “…I won’t hold you back. I know I’m a heart attack. You’ll be fine without me.”

“Waiting by the Telephone” could be their tribute to Blondie’s “Hanging on the Telephone,” because both songs have the same theme – anxiously awaiting the call of a lover. Bleached’s version rocks as much as Blondie’s, by the way. “Love Spells” has Jennifer Clavin first spurning love (“I don’t wanna see you no more. You keep on running back to my door. Told you once, yeah I told you before. Your love spells don’t work anymore.”), then hoping it returns (“Will I see you tonight when I open up my heart?”). It’s a clever song about the confusing nature of love.

“Searching through the Past” is a fine power pop song about missing a lover and hoping for a return to good times. It has great guitar solos by the Clavin sisters as well. The title track is not unlike a Pixies song with quiet verses backed with rock riffs that crank up during the chrous. “Dead Boy” is good, solid fuzz rock that builds to a sweet guitar fade-out. “Guy Like You” is about a guy who keeps breaking Jennifer Clavin’s heart, but she “can’t get enough” of him. It’s a sweet, sad song with lap steel guitar by Jessica Clavin that takes the song to a great, lonely place. The closer, “When I Was Yours,” builds to a wall of psych-fuzz bliss and leaves you hoping the track would go on for another five minutes or more.

The Clavin sisters thank, among others, “ex boyfriends,” in the liner notes to the album. The entire record is about them and the mindboggling nature of love, and it’s a fine salute to both.

Keep your mind open.

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Priests release single, “Pink White House,” from upcoming new album.

PRIESTS SHARE VIDEO FOR “PINK WHITE HOUSE” AND ANNOUNCE TOUR DATES

NOTHING FEELS NATURAL OUT 1/27 ON SISTER POLYGON

Today, Priests share the video for their new song, the presciently titled “Pink White House,” and announce an extensive tour in 2017. The song comes off their forthcoming debut full-length, Nothing Feels Natural, out 1/27 on Sister Polygon Records. Singer Katie Alice Greer had this to say of the song and video:

Lyrically, this is a Priests song I am maybe most proud of to date. I am very inspired by the filmmaker Adam Curtis, the first time I saw “It Felt Like A Kiss” I thought, man, I want to start a band where I can write lyrics the way this guy makes films, like these politically pointed surreal avant-garde narratives, and then I met Daniele and we started Priests. So for me, “Pink White House” is a step towards achieving this style of lyricism. I’m excited about that. Musically we wrote the first half and then were like, “where do we go from here?” We wanted the second half of the song to feel like you’re in a new scene of the story, where “come on palm trees” starts. It was very fun and adventurous for us, writing this way! For the video, I wanted to do something playing on the notion that pop culture repackages your identity and sells it back to you for “entertainment.”

WATCH “PINK WHITE HOUSE”
https://youtu.be/EXVIjFODaqQ

WATCH “JJ”
https://youtu.be/VbWfKVBpvZY

Priests have also announced and extensive tour in 2017 in support of the new record. Don’t miss a chance to see one of the most dynamic and exhilarating bands in the country.
PRIESTS TOUR DATES:
Thu. Nov. 10 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Broad w/ Rhys Chatham
Sat. Jan. 28 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Night Bazaar
Fri. Feb. 3 – Philadelphia, PA @ Everybody Hits
Sat. Feb. 4 – Boston, MA @ Great Scott
Mon. Feb. 6 – Montreal, QC @ Casa del Popolo
Tue. Feb. 7 – Toronto ON @ Silver Dollar Room
Wed. Feb. 8 – Detroit, MI @ UFO Factory
Thu. Feb. 9 – Chicago, IL @ Beat Kitchen
Fri. Feb. 10 – Madison, WI @ Rathskeller
Sat. Feb. 11 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry
Wed. Feb. 15 – Vancouver, BC @ 333
Thu. Feb. 16 – Seattle, WA @ Vera Project
Fri. Feb. 17 – Portland, OR @ Disjecta
Sat. Feb. 18 – Eugene, OR @ The Boreal
Sun. Feb. 19 – Oakland, CA @ Starline Social Club
Mon. Feb. 20 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echoplex
Wed. Feb. 22 – San Diego, CA @ Che Cafe
Thu. Feb. 23 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar
Fri. Feb. 24 – Tucson, AZ @ 191 Toole
Sat. Feb. 25 – Santa Fe, NM @ Meow Wolf
Mon. Feb. 27 – Austin, TX @ Barracuda
Tue. Feb. 28 – McAllen, TX @ Yerberia Cultura
Wed. Mar. 1 – Houston TX @ Walter’s
Thu. Mar. 2 – New Orleans LA @ Siberia
Fri. Mar. 3 – Tallahasee, FL @ Wolf’s Den
Sat. Mar. 4 – Atlanta, GA @ Drunken Unicorn
Sun. Mar. 5 – Durham, NC @ Pinhook
Sat. Mar. 11 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat
PRAISE FOR “JJ”

“‘JJ,’ the new song from the excellent Washington punk band Priests…begins with flickers of surf rock, the sort that inspired and also began to suffocate indie-punk circa 2009. But in the hands of this band, the sound gets harsher and less lithe. When the frontwoman Katie Alice Greer begins to sing, it eradicates any ease that style connotes: “I thought I was a cowboy/because I/Smoked Reds! Smoked Reds! Smoked Reds!” And in the video, the band members are filmed up close as their faces are aggressively poked and prodded. It is a siege — surf’s down.” – The New York Times

“Over surfy, shimmying guitars and a twinkling piano, Greer and her elastic growl reflect on bygone self-assurance, days when cigarette brands could work like masks.” Pitchfork [BEST NEW TRACK]

“If 2014’s Bodies And Control And Money And Power EP explored how politics informed the band’s personal lives, then “JJ” dives into the weirdness of the interpersonal — not offering solutions, just asking more questions, which has long been Priests’ M.O. In the melodic mayhem, a “rich kid, low life in a very big jacket” becomes a stream-of-consciousness portrait of human relationships, particularly from a woman’s point of view. Greer doesn’t so much howl and scream but rather growls and coos like Eartha Kitt wound up and snapped into a surrealist punk rage.” – NPR Music [Songs We Love]

“Priests veer hard here into groovy ’50s sock-hop sounds without losing the immediacy that marks them as one of the greatest young DIY bands of this moment.” – Stereogum [5 Best Songs of the Week]

Aussie surf-psych rockers Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever release SubPop single.

ROLLING BLACKOUTS COASTAL FEVER SIGN TO SUB POP,

SHARE NEW SINGLE “JULIE’S PLACE“

Born from late night jam sessions in singer/guitarist Fran Keaney’s bedroom and honed in the thrumming confines of Melbourne’s live music venues, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever began to take shape as audiences got moving. Sharing tastes and songwriting duties, cousins Joe White and Fran Keaney, brothers Tom and Joe Russo, and drummer Marcel Tussie started out with softer, melody-focused songs. The more shows they played, the more those driving rhythms that now trademark their songs emerged. Since then, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever rode that wave from strength to strength. Touring around the country on headline bills and festival slots, they entrenched themselves with their thrilling live shows.

In early 2016, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever released Talk Tight, their first EP. That effort put the group on the map with glowing support from SPIN, Stereogum, and Pitchfork, praising them as standouts even among the fertile landscape of Melbourne music. Chock full of snappy riffs, spritely drumming and quick-witted wordplay, Talk Tight was praised by Pitchfork “for the precision of their melodies, the streamlined sophistication of their arrangements, and the undercurrent of melancholy that motivates every note.”

“Julie’s Place,” the first single off Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever’s forthcoming EP for Sub Pop (due in 2017), levels up on everything that made Talk Tight such an immediate draw. It’s about being young and dumb but full of bravado. Sprinting guitars mimic singer Keaney’s pangs of heartache, his awkwardly sensual lyrics calling to mind the chaos and confusion of being around someone you can’t get off your mind.

LISTEN TO “JULIE’S PLACE”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHduHoIzfq4

Foxygen release new single, “Follow the Leader,” in time for your post-election blues or euphoria. New album due in January.

FOXYGEN ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM, HANG,
OUT JANUARY 20TH VIA JAGJAGUWAR, NORTH AMERICAN TOUR,
AND LEAD SINGLE, “FOLLOW THE LEADER”

WATCH “FOLLOW THE LEADER” VIDEO –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-tZ1gbc2pQ

(above image by Cara Robbins)
Foxygen, the duo of Sam France and Jonathan Rado, announce their new album Hang, out January 20th on Jagjaguwar, its lead single, “Follow The Leader” and accompanying video, and a North American tour.

On their first proper studio record, the Los Angeles pair once again present their uncanny knack for pulling together myriad strands of influences to an elaborate, uncompromising vision. And this time, they’ve gone true big band! Every song on Hang features a 40-plus-piece symphony orchestra arranged and conducted by Trey Pollard with additional arranging from Matthew E. White. Additionally, Hang was recorded with the brother rhythm section duo of Brian and Michael D’Addario, also known as the Lemon Twigs, and features Steven Drozd of the Flaming Lips on select tracks. Written and produced entirely by Foxygen, Hang was recorded on 2” tape at Electro Vox Studios in Los Angeles.

Lead single, “Follow The Leader,” is one of the album’s most upbeat songs. As described by the band, “it was a blast to make! It’s a positive anthem, with some lyrical scenarios we don’t quite understand.” The song’s video was directed Cameron Dutra (who directed Foxygen’s “San Francisco” video).

Foxygen’s Hang is available for pre-order now. All digital pre-orders come with instant grat downloads of “America” and “Follow The Leader.” The Jagjaguwar album bundle will include Hang Demos flexi disc with “Follow The Leader (demo)” and “On Lankershim (demo)”. The first 50 preorders will also receive an autographed piece of sheet music from the Hang recording sessions.

Watch “Follow The Leader” Video –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-tZ1gbc2pQ

“Follow The Leader” Video Embed Code —
<iframe width=”91%” height=”349″ style=”overflow:visible” scrolling=”no” frameborder=”no” style=”display:inline-block” src=”http://jagjaguwar.com/embed/foxygen_ftl_yt.php“></iframe>

Listen To Foxygen’s “America” –
https://youtu.be/8sUUGgWeeqE

Hang Tracklisting:
1. Follow The Leader
2. Avalon
3. Mrs. Adams
4. America
5. On Lankershim
6. Upon A Hill
7. Trauma
8. Rise Up

Foxygen Tour Dates:
Wed. Nov. 9 – London, UK @ Oslo – SOLD OUT
Thu. Dec. 1 – Brooklyn, NY @ Rough Trade – SOLD OUT
Tue. Mar. 21 – Richmond, VA @ The National
Wed. Mar. 22 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
Fri. Mar. 24 – New York, NY @ Terminal 5
Sat. Mar. 25 – Boston, MA @ The Paradise
Sun. Mar. 26 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
Tue. Mar. 28 – Toronto, ON @ Opera House
Thu. Mar. 30 – Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall
Fri. Mar. 31 – Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre
Sat. Apr. 1 – Madison, WI @ Majestic Theatre
Sun. Apr. 2 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Ave
Tue. Apr. 4 – Denver, CO @ Gothic Theatre
Wed. Apr. 5 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The State Room
Fri. Apr. 7 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
Sat. Apr. 8 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda
Sun. Apr. 9 – Santa Ana, CA @ The Observatory
Tue. Apr. 11 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
Thu. Apr. 13 – Dallas, TX @ Trees
Fri. Apr. 14 – Austin, TX @ The Mohawk
Sat. Apr. 15 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall
Mon. Apr. 17 – New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jacks
Tue. Apr. 18 – Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West
Wed. Apr. 19 – Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel
Thu. Apr. 20 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle

Pre-order Hang –
https://foxygentheband.lnk.to/Hang

(Hang cover art)

New house music from Mr. Tophat due in January.

MR. TOPHAT FEAT. ROBYN’S “TRUST ME” EP
SET FOR JANUARY 13TH RELEASE VIA SMALLTOWN SUPERSOUND

LISTEN TO “TRUST ME”
https://youtu.be/GVpDhCnbh5U
[above image by Per Erik Adamsson]
It’s a match made in dancefloor heaven: Swedish house maestro Mr. Tophat and pop phenom Robyn have come together for “Trust Me,” a three track EP of dark disco and luscious grooves. With each track going well beyond the nine-minute mark, “Trust Me” is the artistic culmination of two artists joining together in the studio and putting pure inspiration to tape, resulting in some of the loosest and most intriguing music either has made in their careers. Further strengthening the EP’s disco bonafides are contributions by Abba’s original drummer, Per Lindvall, and his brother, bassist David Lindvall.

Although Robyn and Mr. Tophat have known each other personally for nearly a decade, the first time they professionally crossed paths was last year, when the latter contributed a few remixes of material from Robyn’s “Love Is Free” EP with La Bagatelle Magique. “I wasn’t making my own music at the time, so he forced his way into my studio and said, ‘We’re going to make music now,’” Robyn recalls the beginnings of the pair’s creative process. “It was really nice for me to be submerged into his world and lose myself in something that wasn’t my own.”

“Trust Me” is certainly situated in Mr. Tophat’s world. The Stockholm-based Junk Yard Connections owner and Karlovak co-founder has spent most of this decade releasing a brilliant stretch of side-long singles with production pal Art Alfie. Those singles’ dense, lovingly handcrafted club vibes are perfectly realized on this EP, with some subtle tweaks to the winning formula—a rich intricacy embedded within a deeper-than-deep sound perfect for peak-hour dancing and 3 AM comedown communions alike.

Mr. Tophat feat. Robyn’s “Trust Me” EP is out January 13th via Smalltown Supersound and available for pre-order now.
Listen to Mr. Tophat feat. Robyn’s “Trust Me”:
https://youtu.be/GVpDhCnbh5U
https://open.spotify.com/track/6EM47FG2jJtBiThswNhNaE

“Trust Me” EP Tracklisting:
1. Trust Me (Original)
2. Right Time (Original)
3. Disco Davato (Original)

Pre-order Mr. Tophat feat. Robyn’s “Trust Me” EP –
Via Smalltown Supersound – http://smarturl.it/sts303-superstore
Via Bandcamp – http://smarturl.it/sts303-bcamp
Stream + download “Trust Me” everywhere else here – http://smarturl.it/sts303-digi

[“Trust Me” EP cover art]

 

Mr. Tophat & Robyn online:
https://www.facebook.com/mrtophatofficial/
https://soundcloud.com/mrtophat
https://www.instagram.com/mrtophatofficial/
http://robyn.com
https://www.facebook.com/robyn
https://soundcloud.com/robyn

Rewind Review: The Kills – Blood Pressures (2011)

the-kills-2011-blood-pressures

I’m hard pressed to remember an album I’ve recently heard that starts off as well as The Kills’ (Jamie Hince and Alison Mosshart) Blood Pressures.

“Future Starts Slow” is one of their biggest hits, and it’s for good reason. Hince’s guitar is like a haunting alarm and Mosshart’s pleading vocals (“…don’t ever give me up. I could never get back up when the future starts so slow.”) have both rock swagger and blues desperation. “Satellite” is another song pleading for more time to love as the Kills’ phone calls to respective lovers are cut off by bad satellite transmissions beyond their control.

“The Heart Is a Beating Drum” is a reminder to keep passion burning in a relationship. Mosshart sums up a hundred thousand sex life columns as she sings, “And you feel like you been here so many times before. It’s not the door you’re using, but the way you’re walking through it.” Hince’s guitar has this cool low fuzz to it well-suited for late night dalliances. There also this cool percussion that sounds like a sped-up Ping-Pong game throughout it that I love.

For having such sad lyrics (i.e., “I’ve made mistakes I can’t take back home. I love you just not the way you want.”), “Nail in My Coffin” has one of the best grooves and some of the heaviest guitar on the record. “Wild Charms,” with Hince on lead vocals, is a nice introduction to “DNA,” in which Mosshart references them (“True, I had those wild charms for you, but oh how my fire burnt them out.”) as she oozes sexual power and attitude.

“Baby Says” has a slick bass line throughout it and sounds like an early Blondie track. “The Last Goodbye” is a heartbreaking break-up song as Mosshart swears this will be the last time she returns to “half hearted love.” “Damned If She Do” has hints of heavy fuzz rock but the lyrics are pure blues. “You Don’t Own the Road” has Mosshart telling her ex that he doesn’t have a monopoly on loneliness and misery, but she’s willing to make him feel better (“Come on over if that’s the way you feel when you’re lonesome. Steal it back when you’re lonely.”). I love the way her vocals get slightly distorted in the chorus. They match the great crunch of Hince’s guitar work. The closer is “Pots and Pans,” in which Mosshart tells her lover that she’s done caring (“Ain’t enough salt in the ocean that care enough to keep you floating.”), and Hince’s fuzzy acoustic guitar draws a line in the sand.

Blood Pressures is solid rock about heartbreak and passion. Both subjects are easy to make sappy or over the top, but the Kills make it look easy. It’s not, because the road you have to walk to write songs like these isn’t easy. Most can’t handle it. The Kills did.

Keep your mind open.

[You can ease our blood pressure by subscribing to us.]

Wolf People’s new album due November 11, 2016.

WOLF PEOPLE SHARE NEW SINGLE “NIGHT WITCH”

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE

RUINS OUT NOVEMBER 11TH ON JAGJAGUWAR

Wolf People have shared the next single, “Night Witch,” from their forthcoming album, Ruins, out November 11th on Jagjaguwar. The single is accompanied by an eerie visual with direction from Marsha Balaeva and drone footage from Ivan Makarov which premieres today via CLRVYNT.

On the video, Balaeva explains, “I was born in the Soviet Union, and growing up, one of the streets in our neighbourhood was named after one of the pilots from the all-female 558th Night Bomber Regiment that operated during WWII. These women flew old biplanes under the cover of darkness and bombed the invading Germans. The planes were too slow and would have been easy targets in daylight, but at night they could cut out their engines and glide silently to their target and drop their cargo. Germans gave them the name of Nachthexen (Night Witches).”

She continues, “For this video I wanted to use stop-motion animation to depict the time when eerie shadows and flashes of light in the night brought fear into the hearts of those on the ground. The time when the setting dusk spelt the beginning of a night of terrors and vulnerability. Much of the video was filmed at night in the Lake District in the UK, but the drone footage was made in Russia, where the Night Witches flew all these years ago.”

Recorded in Devon, Isle Of Wight and London, Ruins is Wolf People’s most direct and instinctive work yet, simultaneously reaching back into a fecund past to tell us who we are today, while harnessing the power of modern technology and ideas to ponder unknown futures. Lyrically Ruins imagines how the planet might appear when society has finally fallen to dust and ash, and the creeping vines and nettles have reclaimed the land. It is the product of letting go of conceit, contrivance and, indeed, a career plan.

Influences upon Ruins come in all shapes, size, contours and hues: the discovery of proto Sabbath/Zeppelin Scottish band Iron Claw, the lesser known landscapes of rural Bedfordshire, backstage Taekwondo stretches, Scandinavian psychedelia, fleeting rural epiphanies, Dungen, Trees, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, a group holiday on a remote Finnish island, and Jagjaguwar flipping out after seeing them play in Bloomington, Indiana and insisting it was time they made their Back In Black…

WATCH WOLF PEOPLE’S “NIGHT WITCH” VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmKt76_wtHs
http://www.vevo.com/watch/US38Y1627914

WATCH WOLF PEOPLE’S “NINTH NIGHT” VIDEO:
https://youtu.be/eafkYEXJKg4
https://soundcloud.com/jagjaguwar/wolf-people-ninth-night

WOLF PEOPLE TOUR DATES (new dates in bold):
Thu. Nov. 17 – Bedford, UK @ Esquires
Fri. Nov. 18 – Leeds, UK @ Headrow House
Sat. Nov. 19 – Glasgow, UK @ Sleazys
Sun. Nov. 20 – Manchester, UK @ Deaf Institute
Tue. Nov. 22 – London, UK @ Oslo
Thu. Nov. 24 – Birmingham, UK @ The Sunflower
Fri. Nov. 25 – Sheffield, UK @ Picture House Social
Sun. Nov. 27 – Bristol, UK @ Louisiana
Sat. Feb. 14 – Hamburg, DE @ Hafenklang
Sun. Feb. 15 – Leipzig, DE @ UT Connewitz
Mon. Feb. 16 – Berlin, DE @ Cassiopeia
Tue. Feb. 17 – Koln, DE @ King Georg

Ruins album art

Temples’ new album due March 03, 2017.

TEMPLES ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM, VOLCANO, OUT MARCH 3RD ON FAT POSSUM

WATCH VIDEO FOR DEBUT SINGLE, “CERTAINTY”
https://youtu.be/h6zdVaAe0OE

AND TEMPLES ON LAST CALL WITH CARSON DALY
http://www.nbc.com/last-call-with-carson-daly/video/temples-certainty/3416736
http://www.nbc.com/last-call-with-carson-daly/video/temples-shelter-song/3416737

[Volcano album art]
Temples — James Bagshaw (vocals, guitar), Tom Warmsley (bass, backing vocals), Sam Toms (drums) and Adam Smith (keys) — are set to release their new album, Volcano, on March 3rd via Fat Possum. The band’s announcement comes on the heels of a sold out North American tour and a performance last week on Last Call with Carson Daly, where the English four-piece presented debut single, “Certainty,” to viewers across the nation. Today, they also share the single’s video, directed by Alden Volney. He describes it below.

“This is based on a recurring dream I have been having since childhood about getting into a sea of plastic. So when the band approached me about doing something inspired by those JPOP videos that ooze quirkiness and eccentricity, I thought injecting the color palettes and aesthetics of Japan into this idea could be a good fit. It’s designed to feel like a fever dream you’d have after spending too much time in a Japanese dollar store.”

All the elements people loved with Temples’ debut, Sun Structures, remain intact, but with Volcano, there is a noticeable evolution presented from the outset. It’s clear Volcano is the sound of Temples squaring up to their potential, immediately evident with “Certainty.” Its beefed-up beats reveal an expanded sonic firmament, one in which bright synth hooks and insistent choruses circle around each other over chord sequences that strike just the right balance between nice and queasy. “If there’s a sense of scale,” says frontman James Bagshaw, “It was really just a result of implementing a load of things that we didn’t know about the first time around. We didn’t even have a subwoofer to listen back to things that we did on Sun Structures, so there was nothing below 50Hz on that record. We didn’t even know those frequencies were there!”

Entirely self-produced and written by all four members of the band, Temples’ melodies seem to come effortlessly. There are sun-dazed numbers and lysergic dream-pop songs and those where synth and mellotron interweave to beguiling effect. One thing is certain; it’s harder to spot the influences this time around. Mystical language has been supplanted by something more direct. They’ve been broken down and blended together – fossilized into a single source of creative fuel, resulting in a sound that is undoubtedly Temples. As described by co-founding member Warmsley, “we discovered a lot as we went along, and the excitement at having done so radiates outwards.”

Watch Temples’ “Certainty” Video –
https://youtu.be/h6zdVaAe0OE

Listen to/share Temples’ “Certainty” –
https://soundcloud.com/templesofficial/temples-certainty/

Watch Temples on Last Call with Carson Daly –
http://www.nbc.com/last-call-with-carson-daly/video/temples-certainty/3416736
http://www.nbc.com/last-call-with-carson-daly/video/temples-shelter-song/3416737
                              
Volcano Tracklisting:
1. Certainty
2. All Join In
3. I Wanna Be Your Mirror
4. Oh The Saviour
5. Born Into The Sunset
6. How Would You Like To Go?
7. Open Air
8. In My Pocket
9. Celebration
10. Mystery Of Pop
11. Roman Godlike Man
12. Strange Or Be Forgotten

Volcano Pre-order:
Digital – http://smarturl.it/Temples.Volcano
Physical – http://smarturl.it/Temples.Volcano.LP

Temples Tour Dates:
Sat. Dec. 3 – Paris, FR @ Point Ephémère, Rough Trade 40th Anniversary Weekend
Sun. Jan. 22 – Hebden Bridge, UK @ The Trades Club, Heavenly Weekend
Thu. March 30 – London, UK @ The Electric

(above image by Ed Miles)