Techno producer/musician Kelly Lee Owens unveils a new single/video, “On,” from her forthcoming album, Inner Song, out August 28th on Smalltown Supersound. Following “Night” and “Melt!,” “On” is a rustling electro-pop glimmer that gives way to yo-yo synths and a tough-as-nails techno backbeat. It’s the alpha and omega of the Kelly Lee Owens experience, reflective of her ability to contain sonic and emotional multitudes within just one song. Shot on the Norwegian coastline, its accompanying video sees Kelly collaborating once again with Kasper Häggström, who also directed her “Throwing Lines” video. Like the song, it tells the story of a breakup.
“This is perhaps the most intimate and personal song I’ve written so far – the two halves of the track reflect upon sad acceptances of the truth and then the joyous aftermath of liberation that can come from that,” says Owens. “This can definitely be heard in the production and arrangement of the track – the first half sonically connecting to the inner revelations and the second half, the liberation in action, the forward motion.” Watch Kelly Lee Owens’ “On” Video Inner Song is the follow-up to Owens’ self-titled debut, which “introduced an extraordinary artist packing a hefty one-two combination of intimate, powerful electronic pop and cavernous, brain-melting techno” (MOJO), and was recognized as one of the most critically praised albums of 2017. It finds Owens diving deep into her own psyche—working through the struggles she’s faced over the last several years and exploring personal pain while embracing the beauty of the natural world. Sonically, Inner Song’s hair-raising bass and tickling textures drive home that, more so than ever, Owens is locked into delivering maximal aural pleasure, whether it be on a techno banger, covering Radiohead, or collaborating with fellow Welsh artist John Cale on a psychedelic lullaby. Listen to “Night” by Kelly Lee Owens
Bristol-based musician Fenne Lily announces BREACH, her second album and first for Dead Oceans, out September 18th. It presents a newly upbeat and urgent streak to her songwriting, immediately evident with lead single “Alapathy,” and its accompanying video directed by Benjamin Brook. BREACH is an expansive, diaristic, frequently sardonic record that deals with the mess and the catharsis of entering your 20s and finding peace while being alone. It’s the follow-up to 2018’s On Hold, a tender collection of open-hearted songs written during her teenage years which deemed Fenne “a new and extraordinary voice capable of wringing profound and resonant moments out of loss” (The Line of Best Fit).
Fenne wrote BREACH during a period of self-enforced isolation pre-COVID, after a disjointed experience of touring Europe, followed by a month alone in Berlin. The album deals largely with “loneliness, and trying to work out the difference between being alone and being lonely.” Although its subject matter is solitude, it sounds bigger and more intricate than anything Fenne previously released. She recorded with producer Brian Deck at Chicago’s Narwhal Studios, with further work at Electrical Audio with Steve Albini who helped flesh out her sound with vast, rich guitars.
The insistent percussion of the album’s first single, “Alapathy,” mimics the anxious racing thoughts Fenne deals with as an overthinker and chronicles how she “started smoking weed to switch off [her] brain.” The title is a made-up word that merges “apathy” and “allopathic” (as in Westernized medicine). “Western medicine generally treats the symptoms of an illness rather than the cause,” explains Fenne. For Fenne, taking medication to improve her mental health didn’t solve her problems — she felt like she was only treating the effects of her discomfort, not the reason for it. Its stylized accompanying video features Fenne enjoying solitude in various ways.
It’s that journey to find peace inside herself that underpins the whole of Fenne’s second album. Its title, BREACH, occurred to Fenne after deep conversations with her mum about her birth, during which she was breech, or upside down in the womb. The slippery double-sidedness of the word – which, spelled with an “A”, means to “break through” – drew her in. “That feels like what I was doing in this record; I was breaking through a wall that I built for myself, keeping myself safe, and dealing with the downside of feeling lonely and alone. I realized that I am comfortable in myself, and I don’t need to fixate on relationships to make myself feel like I have something to talk about. I felt like I broke through a mental barrier in that respect.” Even though it also carries implications of awkwardness, rebellion, and breakage, it’s a wide-reaching word, representing new beginnings and birth. Watch Fenne Lily’s Video for “Alapathy”
BREACH Tracklist 1. To Be a Woman Pt. 1 2. Alapathy 3. Berlin 4. Elliott 5. I, Nietzsche 6. Birthday 7. Blood Moon 8. Solipsism 9. I Used To Hate My Body But Now I Just Hate You 10. ’98 11. Someone Else’s Trees 12. Laundry And Jet Lag
Los Angeles-based musician Jess Cornelius releases a new single/video, “Body Memory,” from her debut album, Distance, out July 24th on Loantaka Records. It follows the Roy Orbison tinged rave-up, “Kitchen Floor.” On “Body Memory,” the last song she wrote for the record, Cornelius intones over a calming electro-rhythm “When we met I used to make you laugh/then we lost the baby and it broke my heart,” adding later: “My body has a memory and it won’t forget.” Its accompanying video, the second she’s made since the start of the pandemic lockdown, was created by Cornelius and her partner and filmed on an iPhone at Lake Isabella, California. Cornelius elaborates on the video:
“Originally I had a much more elaborate, narrative-based concept, where I was this woman running away from a cult, (hence the tracksuit and Nikes), to be filmed in Oildale and Posey where my partner, Joe, is fixing up an old cabin. At the last minute, we decided to drive to Lake Isabella because of supposed good visuals there. I was grumbling all the way there about how the location wouldn’t fit with my shot list, but when we got there and I started dancing on rocks, we just threw away the shot list and made it up as we went along. The editing was fun because I’m teaching myself Premiere Pro (thanks YouTube tutorials) and I got to throw every hilarious video effect at it. We were also heavily influenced by Laraaji’s videos, obviously.” Watch Jess Cornelius’ Video for “Body Memory”
Cornelius first began writing the songs that would comprise Distance after moving from Melbourne, Australia to Los Angeles. At the time, she was excited to start fresh after several years as the primary songwriter in the band Teeth and Tongue. But the distance she addresses over the album is hardly a geographical one. The journey over Distance is a celebration of newness. New beginnings and new perspectives on endings. From the chaos of a vagabond lifestyle to expecting a child just weeks before the albums’ release and researching how to tour as a mother in the coming years.
While the sonic tones and textures on the album evoke certain classic staples of Americana, soul and rock and roll, Cornelius’ lyrics anchor the songs to a deeply personal place. She sings of a miscarriage, a messy romantic affair, and the frustrations that come with having a partner. Distance finds a deft songwriter analyzing the space between society’s expectations for her and her own dreams, the illusion of love and the reality of disappointment, and a past she is ready to let go of and a future she could have hardly imagined.
Part-psychedelia, part-punk, part-garage rock, Oh Sees’ excellent 2013 album Floating Coffin is a wild race and a heavy trip. I mean, just check out that cover.
The album gets off to a great start with the instant mosh pit-inducing “I Come from the Mountain.” I’ve lost track of how many bodies I’ve collided with in pits during this song at their live shows. Frontman John Dwyer sings about the frustrations of relationships (“No one likes heartache or the kind, everyone’s a problem sometimes.”) while throwing down fierce guitar riffs. “Toe Cutter – Thumb Buster” makes you want to pogo no matter where you are, so be careful if you’re listening to it while driving or operating heavy machinery.
The title track has a manic energy to it that is difficult to describe but instantly recognizable if you’ve heard any other Oh Sees records. I’m pretty sure it’s a song about death (Go figure.) as Dwyer sings about lying down, drinking up the sky, and seeing God. “No Spell” brings in some psychedelic jamming (and wild drumming) for Dwyer and his crew to stretch their muscles.
The driving force of “Strawberries 1 + 2” is damn near unstoppable, with only heavy cymbal crashes and floor tom beats to break up the relentless wall of guitar in it. Songs like “Maze Fancier,” with lyrics like “A grave inside a cave, a maze inside a maze,” make me want to run a Dungeons and Dragons game for John Dwyer. The song has a great bass groove throughout it to boot.
Weird, wobbly synths start “Night Crawler” before orc army drumming comes in to shake us up and Dwyer’s echoing vocals contribute further to the haze drifting around our heads. “Sweets Helicopter” sounds like the name of a lost 1970’s live-action Saturday morning kids TV show, but it another song about death…with soaring solos from Dwyer that almost sound like bagpipes. “Tunnel Time” seems to be about a serial killer stuffing bodies under his house or a caretaker of some kind of tomb (“Can’t remember the faces or even the names. I’ve been cleaning up bodies. They all look the same…to me.”). The mixture of guitar and synths is great in this track. The closer, “Minotaur,” is about being stuck in the corporate rat race maze (“I get sick at my work everyday. There is no cure but to stay. Stay away without pay and the horns on my header are getting thicker with each day.”).
It’s a fun, loud, bold record perfect for getting your blood pumping and your head spinning. If you need something to rev you up while you’re stuck in self-isolation and cleaning your house, here you go.
Keep your mind open.
[Float on over to the subscription box while you’re here.]
Chicago’s Riot Fest was the last 2020 festival standing in Chicago that hadn’t been postponed or cancelled, so it wasn’t a shock to learn it had been postponed until September 16 – 19, 2021.
What was a surprise was how they announced the first wave of the 2021 lineup. I don’t know how many of these bands were already scheduled for the 2020 festival, but they landed some heavy hitters either way – My Chemical Romance, Smashing Pumpkins, Run the Jewels, and Pixies are all sure to draw big crowds. Gogol Bordello are known for their wild shows, and punk legends Circle Jerks are a nice snag, as are Toots and the Maytals, Jawbox, Best Coast, and L7. My favorite part of the current lineup, however, might be Living Colour. I had no idea they were touring. Furthermore, Riot Fest teases two more waves of lineup announcements – possibly of thirty-six more bands. There’s also this…
They’ve announced that there will be surprise sets on September 16th, some by bands they describe as “bucket list” bands. In my limited music festival experience, preview nights are not to be missed. Some of the best sets I’ve seen at Levitation Music Festivalhave been on Thursday nights.
Get your tickets early if you can. Everyone is going to be so hungry for live music in 2021 that there will be few shows and festivals that won’t be sell-outs.
Legendary South Sudanese pop star and 2019’s BIGSOUND Levi’s Prize winner Gordon Koang announces his eleventh album, Unity, out August 14th on Music in Exile / Light in the Attic, and presents its lead single/video, “Tiel e Nei Nywal Ke Ran (We Don’t Have a Problem With Anyone).” Unity is Gordon’s first album since coming to Australia in 2013. It is his only recorded output in the painstakingly long six years of living as an asylum seeker, and the album was completed just weeks before Gordon was awarded his permanent residency. He could have had no way of knowing the immanence of this reward, and yet there is no frustration in the songs, no impatience or anger – only Gordon’s unending positivity, his love of all people and of the world he has never seen. With a beaming smile that is unfettered by his blindness, a condition he has lived with since birth, Gordon is a fountain of warmth and joy, immediately accepting of any stranger who finds themself in his presence.
Following previously released “Mal Mi Goa (Ginoli Remix)” “Tiel e Nei Nywal Ke Ran (We Don’t Have a Problem With Anyone)” is a jubilant blend of Gordon’s signature thom (an East African stringed instrument that he has modified to suit his unique style of playing), light percussion, and Gordon’s jubilant vocals. “We don’t have a problem with anyone! Music is the friend of everyone in the world,” says Koang. “We are doing it with happiness, we love people, we love our audience and we know our audience loves us.”
Directed by Nick McKinlay (Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Julia Jacklin, Stella Donnelly), the video features footage from the Cranbourne Botanic Gardens and from Gordon’s home in Frankston. Warm and joyful, the clip visually captures the sentiments that are so clearly heard in Gordon’s music. “I had never met Gordon, but was familiar with his colourful live shows and friendly, matter-of-fact demeanour,” says McKinlay. “Joe and I met both Gordon and Paul at their place, an old motel turned apartments in Frankston, where we started to play in the shared garden. Before too long, there were several people watching and clapping as they finished performing. Watching these two play in public, two instruments that not many people had seen before was a pretty gleeful watch.”
Unity was recorded by Stefan Blair and James Mannix in various parts of Melbourne over the course of 2019. With Unity, Gordon hopes to reach as many new listeners as he can in his adopted country, and around the world. He wants everyone, and he means everyone, to hear his message of peace and unity, regardless of religion or cultural differences. After a painfully first-hand experience of what these rifts between people can create, Gordon has devoted his life, and his music, to a simple message of peace, love and unity.
Gordon began playing music from an early age, busking on the streets of Juba. Crowds would gather to hear his music, predominantly gospel hymns or extended, historical pieces charting the history of the Nuer people and their heroes. Accompanied by his cousin and lifelong companion Paul Biel, Gordon began self-producing tapes and CD’s, which were sold on the street and changed hands between communities. His music went viral, spreading throughout the country, and his reputation quickly grew as the poet and homegrown hero of the Nuer people, sometimes called the “Michael Jackson of South Sudan.”
In 2013, while Koang was performing to expatriate Nuer communities in Australia, renewed conflict broke out at home. He made a difficult and heartbreaking decision to not return to Sudan, applying to the Australian government for humanitarian protection. After six long years of waiting, living in a foreign country far away from his family, he now proudly calls himself an “Australian,” and eagerly awaits the day he will rejoin his wife and children in safety.
There have been changes at home over those six years. Gordon’s wife and children no longer live in a refugee camp, but have moved to a slightly safer, roofed building in a nearby city, aided by Gordon’s income from performing in Australia. Income from every gig, every club show or festival appearance, has been mailed home. He has a daughter now, five years old, whom he has never met. And the application process has begun for both families to come to Australia; hope has not been lost. As Gordon sings on the closing track of the album, “I am in a very far place, in Australia, and you are there. You are there and we are here. There will be a time when we are together. Even though we are here in a very far place, you are there together with our children, we are alone without you. We will not lose you and you will not lose us. We will meet again in a future time!”
Unity Tracklist 1.Asylum Seeker 2. Stand Up (Clap Your Hands) 3. Kone Ke Ran 4. South Sudan 5. Mal Mi Goa 6. Y Dah 7. Tiel E Nei Nywaki Ke Ran 8. Te Ke Mi Thile Ji Kuoth Nhial
Keep your mind open.
[I don’t have a problem if you don’t subscribe, really, but it would be nice of you.]
Turning Jewels Into Water – the duo of Haitian-born drummer, DJ, educator and electronic music artist Val Jeanty and Indian-born drummer, producer and educator Ravish Momin –announce their new album, Our Reflection Adorned by Newly Formed Stars, out August 21st on FPE Records, and share the lead single/video. It follows their 2019 album Map of Absences. For Our Reflection Momin and Jeanty take their dynamic musical partnership to even greater heights and more intense depths. Imbued with the spirit of collaboration and influenced by cutting-edge sounds like South African Gqom, Our Reflection reaches across oceans and continents, connecting the ancient with the modern.
As a collaborative project, Turning Jewels Into Water began when Jeanty participated in a jam session at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn while Momin was artist-in-residence there in September 2017. Their collaboration, rooted in improvisation, evokes the esoteric realms of the creative subconscious. Drawing from the Vodun religion, Val recreates the ancient rhythms and pulse of Haiti through digital beats, while Momin, whose own musical background is rooted in Indian, North African and Middle-Eastern traditions, has developed an original blend of electro-acoustic beats, drawing together the improvisational traditions in Jazz and Indian folk music. Together, they employ cutting-edge music-technological tools such as acoustic drums outfitted with Sensory Percussion triggers, Force Sensing Resistor (FSR) drum pads and Smart Fabric MIDI Controllers, but still emphasize the ritual aspects of creating music in the digital realm.
Speaking to the collaborative approach they took to making Our Reflection, Momin explains that he and Jeanty lead an ensemble of musicians from around the world, with the end product being a challenge to the ethnic fetishizing that far-too commonly comes along with global/world music. In March 2020, Momin had already reached out to other artists for remote contributions, including Iranian singer/daf player Kamyar Arsani (based in Washington, DC) and friend Mpho Molikeng, a master musician of South African indigenous instruments (based in Lesotho). Jeanty had already set up a base in Boston (for her newly appointed position as a professor at Berklee College of Music) and was also planning on collaborating remotely. “Therefore, once mandatory quarantines went into effect across the US and the world in mid-March, it had little impact on our creative process,” says Momin. “The resulting album has elements that are at once familiar and unfamiliar, as we evoke a digital folk music from nowhere.”
Accompanying the lead single is a video created by Art Jones. “The video for ‘Our Reflection Adorned by Newly Formed Stars’ explores the narrative of the Siddis – Indians of East African origin, who were merchants, sailors and even rulers of Indian territories, but have now been marginalized and have had their histories erased,” says Momin. “As the #BLM movement rightfully gains prominence across the globe, we wanted to raise awareness of the anti-blackness that is deeply embedded in other cultures as well.”
With Our Reflection Adorned By Newly Formed Stars, Turning Jewels Into Water uses forward-thinking electronic music and experimentation to tap into a continuum of folk music that is as old as time itself. Also, containing remixes from Laughing Ears, and EMB, the music here is Indian, African, Afro-Caribbean and global all at once. By combining their unique cultural experiences Jeanty and Momin are bold enough to allow all of the tensions and commonalities to play freely and resolve themselves in the music. Watch “Our Reflection Adorned by Newly Formed Stars” Video: https://youtu.be/YWb1D-aNrUY
Our Reflection Adorned by Newly Formed Stars Tracklist: 1. Swirl in the Waters 2. Flower in Flames 3. Janjira in a Flash 4. Our Reflections Adorned by Newly Formed Stars 5. Whispers under Dal Lake 6. Kerala in My Heart 7. Crushed Petals and Stones Fall on My Drum 8. Crushed Petals and Stones Fall on My Drum (Laughing Ears Remix) 9. Flower in Flames (EMB Remix)
Earlier this year Toronto’s Hannah Georgas shared a pair of singles “That Emotion” and “Same Mistakes,” — the first released in early March just before the scale of our pandemic crises had become clear, the second a month ago at the height of quarantine. The first sampling of a forthcoming collaboration with producer Aaron Dessner of The National, the singles received a rapturous response from outlets like The FADER, Stereogum, The Line of Best Fit, Clash, American Songwriter, BrooklynVegan, Exclaim, World Cafe and Consequence of Sound who dubbed her “a new generation’s Feist.”
Today, Georgas is announcing of her new album All That Emotion, a full length collaboration with Dessner that is due out September 4th on Brassland & Arts & Crafts. and sharing her new single “Dreams.” LISTEN to “Dreams” here“I have been thinking about what this album represents to me and it is resilience,” says Hannah. “It’s about finding hope and a way out the other side of tough situations. The hardships we go through make us grow into stronger people. The album is about healing, self reflection and getting up again at the end of the day.”
Of newly released single “Dreams” she writes: “In my past, I have let my insecurities play into relationships and have pushed people away because I have felt like I’m not deserving of love. This song explores the idea of breaking down those barriers of insecurity and being more open.”——Hannah Georgas began creating the album ALL THAT EMOTION about a year after the release of her celebrated 2016 album FOR EVELYN—starting with an intensive process of writing and demoing songs in her Toronto apartment, and finishing with a month long retreat in Los Angeles. She began the record making process in the middle of 2018 when she traveled to Long Pond, the upstate New York studio & home of producer Aaron Dessner of The National.
“Before each session, I would make the long drive from Toronto to Hudson Valley in Upstate New York.” Says Hannah. “It was really special getting the opportunity to work in such a remote space with Aaron and Jon and I was always itching to get back whenever we had breaks. At the same time, I appreciated the space in between and coming back with fresh ears.” Hannah continues, “Aaron and I agreed the production needed to bring out the truth in my voice. During these sessions we musically found a new depth and, vocally, a delivery that was more raw and expressive, allowing the emotional texture of each song to shine through.”
The writing of the album found Hannah creating her most personal album to date. “ALL THAT EMOTION’s album cover is an old family photo,” says Hannah. “I love the image because it captures this calm confidence. It looks like people are watching a performance and it seems like he’s diving in without a second thought. Similarly, I find that it parallels the approach needed within art. The calm confidence of expressing yourself without the thought of consequence, regardless of anyone watching.”
On the album, you’ll hear about bad habits and prayerful families—right and wrong love—mistakes and moving on—casual cruelty and most of all, change. Plotting the boundaries of where to place this music it’s emotionally fraught but warm & fuzzy. “An indie-minded avant-pop artist” was the Boston Globe’s formulation for her charms. Think of Fleetwood Mac meets The National; Kate Bush-sized passion with the earthiness of Cat Power or Aimee Mann. The album grows inside you and sticks to your insides. The songs are big tent anthems, rough at the edges but relatable.
Hannah continues: “I still have long conversations with my friends over the phone, talking about love and relationships, pain and heartbreak, our upbringings and the hardships that come along with that.” In an era of social media quips and hollow memes, maybe it’s this kind of one-on-one contact a form of communication worth getting back to?
“In this way, I get a lot of lyrical inspiration through the individuals I interact with in my everyday life,” she says. “Then music becomes the forum where I work out these feelings, embrace and express pain and love, joy and anger, frustration and fear and hope. It’s where I can be uncensored, not hold back, and say what I want to say. In that way, making music is a cathartic and cleansing process. It’s always the best feeling when someone tells me my music has helped them out in some way. That keeps me going.”All That Emotion will be released September 4, 2020 on Arts & Crafts/Brassland. It is available for preorder here.
Track List 1. That Emotion – video 2. Easy 3. Dreams – video 4. Pray It Away 5. Someone I Don’t Know 6. Punching Bag 7. Same Mistakes – video 8. Just A Phase 9. Habits 10. Change 11. Cruel
“Through textures of funk, disco and Middle Eastern avant-garde, ‘Mordechai’ is a nostalgic LP that explores human memory. ‘Dearest Alfred’ lionizes the letters that Lee’s grandfather would write to his twin brother, and ‘If There Is No Question’ recalls the gospel songs Speer and Johnson would perform in church. On ‘Shida,’ the album’s sultry closer, Khruangbin turns its attention to the early 1980s, bringing elements of Sade to mind, with gentle vocal sighs floating along the fringes and ethereal guitar chords pinned to the back of the mix.” — The New York Times
“From the French New Wave sounds to ’70s get-down grooves like ‘So We Won’t Forget,’ it looks to be further evidence of the group’s restless creative muse paying off.” — The A.V. Club, “albums we can’t wait to hear in June”
“Travel and discovery through music has always been at the center of what Khruangbin creates, and Mordechai promises to be another step in the voyage.” — Paste, “The 10 Albums We’re Most Excited About in June”
Khruangbin – the trio of LauraLeeOchoa (bass), MarkSpeer (guitar), and Donald “DJ” Johnson (drums) – present new single, “Pelota,” alongside its accompanying video, directed by Hugo Rodrigues Rodriguez, written by AlvaroSotomayor and produced by GlassworksCreativeStudio. The track is off of their highly-anticipated new album, Mordechai, out next Friday, June 26th on DeadOceansin association with Night Time Stories. “Pelota” follows the “bright, soothing” (RollingStone) “So We Won’t Forget” and lead single “Time (You and I).” “A Texan band with a Thai name singing a song in Spanish, loosely based on a Japanese movie,” says Khruangbin of the track, which opens with a flurry of guitar and Ochoa, Speer, and Johnson’s sun-tinged unison vocals.
Mordechai comes two years after the release of Khruangbin’s beloved and acclaimed breakthrough, 2018’s Con Todo El Mundo, and was preceded earlier this year by TexasSun, the group’s collaborative EP with LeonBridges. As a first for the mostly instrumental band, Mordechai features vocals prominently on nearly every song. It’s a shift that rewards the risk, reorienting Khruangbin’s transportive sound toward a new sense of emotional directness, without losing the spirit of nomadic wandering that’s always defined it.
In conjunction with the upcoming release of Mordechai, Khruangbin have also relaunched AirKhruang, their popular flight playlist generator tool that gives fans a platform to enjoy their music curation when travel is not possible. “Shelter In Space” sends listeners on a musical voyage from the safety of their homes by utilizing Spotify’s music attributes to generate custom playlists set for a user-chosen activity and duration.
The Beths share “Out of Sight,” a new single from their highly-anticipated sophomore album, Jump Rope Gazers, out July 10th on Carpark Records. The band performed the single on their “Live From House 3” live stream last night. It follows previously released singles “I’m Not Getting Excited” and “Dying to Believe.”
“Out of Sight” is tender and shoegazing. It reckons with the distance that drives people apart and how those who love each other inevitably fail each other. The best way to repair that failure, in The Beths’ view, is with abundant and unconditional love, no matter how far it has to travel.
Elizabeth Stokes says, “The band playing on ‘Out Of Sight’ is more fragile than we usually allow ourselves to be. We are trying to listen more deeply and be more open ended, it was confronting to do and sometimes even frustrating. But it came out great, Ben’s bass playing especially is beautifully melodic and gives the song a unique texture.”
The accompanying video directed by Ezra Simons was filmed on Super 8 film and shows the band birdwatching amongst the brush. Archival footage of birds native to New Zealand are woven throughout. Simons says, “The goal was to create a nostalgic and timeless roadtrip video where the band goes off in search of native birds, but instead finds each other.”
The Beths are Elizabeth Stokes (vocals/guitar), Jonathan Pearce (guitar), Benjamin Sinclair (bass), and Tristan Deck (drums). Jump Rope Gazers is the follow-up to Future Me Hates Me, “one of the most impressive indie-rock debuts of the year” (Pitchfork). The album received glowing praise and appeared on many year-end lists including Rolling Stone, NPR, Stereogum, and more.
Jump Rope Gazers tackles themes of anxiety and self-doubt with effervescent power pop choruses and rousing backup vocals, zeroing in on the communality and catharsis that can come from sharing stressful situations with some of your best friends. Touring far from home, The Beths committed to taking care of each other while simultaneously trying to take care of friends living thousands of miles away. That care and attention shines through on Jump Rope Gazers, where the quartet sounds more locked in than ever. Jump Rope Gazers stares down all the hard parts of living in communion with other people, even at a distance, while celebrating the ferocious joy that makes it all worth it. Watch “Out of Sight” Video
The Beths Tour Dates (tickets): Sat. July 11 – Auckland, NZ @ Power Station Sun. Nov 8 – Perth, WA @ HBF Park* Wed. Nov. 11 – Melbourne, VIC @ Marvel Stadium* Sat. Nov. 14 – Sydney, NSW @ Bankwest Stadium* Tue. Nov. 17 – Brisbane, QLD @ QSAC Stadium* Fri. Nov. 20 – Dunedin, NZ @ Forsyth Barr Stadium* Sun. Nov. 22 – Auckland, NZ @ Mt Smart Stadium* Tue. March 30 – Southampton, UK @ The Loft Wed. March 31 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club Thu. April 1 – Manchester, UK @ Club AcademyFri. April 2 – Glasgow, UK @ Saint Luke’s Sat. April 3 – Dublin, IE @ The Workman’s Club Mon. April 5 – Bristol, UK @ SWX Tue. April 6 – Birmingham, UK @ Castle and Falcon Wed. April 7 – London, UK @ O2 Kentish Town Thu. April 8 – Brighton, UK @ Concorde 2 Fri. April 9 – Paris, FR @ Point Éphémère Sat. April 10 – Lyon, FR @ Marché Gare – Hors les murs Sun. April 11 – Milan, IT @ BIKO Tue. April. 13 – Düdingen, CH @ Bad Bonn Wed. April 14 – Lausanne, CH @ Le Romandie Thu. April 15 – Munich, DE @ Kranhalle Fri. April 16 – Vienna, AT @ B72 Sat. April 17 – Prague, CZ @ Underdogs’ BallroomSun. April 18 – Belin, DE @ Lido Tue. April 20 – Copenhagen, DK @ Vega Ideal Bar Wed. April 21 – Hamburg, DE @ Molotow Thu. April 22 – Cologne, DE @ Artheater Fri. April 23 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso Noord Sun. April 25 – Brussels, BE @ Ancienne Belgique
