Combining jazz, hip hop, funk, and “atmospheric melodies,” El Jazzy Chavo‘s Aspects of Dystopia is a cool, mood-altering record that can be experienced in different moods, on different days, and through different listening systems all to various effects.
The overriding theme of the album is the day-to-day struggle of the lower class living in places with people (and buildings) who overlook them. “Futurama” is like the opening track to a film about a renegade graffiti artist in a totalitarian regime and a place where “the deep snow buries any sound.”
The groove of “Slap of Realism” is rooted in electro-bass and and processed beats that sound almost like they’re coming from the back of a bodega down the street. “Below the City” is surprisingly bright, as if you went into the sewers to hide from killer robots and discovered a vibrant colony of other survivors there. “Delusion” would fit well into a horror film with its simple synth stabs and ethereal chords.
“Where the Stars Don’t Shine” is the track that introduced me to El Jazzy Chavo. The wicked beats, sampled horns, and lounge vibraphone sounds hooked me right away. “The voice you hear is not my speaking voice,” a woman says at the beginning of “La Sirena de la Salva,” and then siren-like calls emerge from your speakers alongside smooth guitars and snappy beats. “Threshold of Sensation” has a neat warped sound to it that almost makes you feel drunk.
“Swallowed by Normality” has a neat switch near the end that shakes you out of your relaxation, but not in a harsh way. The sampled brass on “Hemispheres” is a great accompaniment to the vaporwave synths. “Return to Forever” is waiting for a rapper of mad skills to come along and use it in his next track. “Andromeda” has some of the best use of sampled raps on the record.
“Barefoot in the Storm” has a groove as relaxing at the title implies, and “Stealing in the Moonlight” is just as slick. The album ends with, appropriately, “Oblivion.” The track isn’t gloomy, however. It’s more of a blissful peace one finds as you fall into a well-deserved rest. The album ends with the sampled lyrics of, “I look out the attic window and watch the world go by. I feel like an outsider. I’m on a different wavelength than everybody else.”
He is, and Aspects of Dystopia will put you onto El Jazzy Chavo’s wavelength.
Recorded with a different backing band (J.J. Burnell – bass and vocals, Sonny Fortune – saxophone and flute, Tony “Thunder” Smith – drums) than the rest of The Smithereens, Pat Dinizio‘s 1997 solo album, Songs and Sounds, is a fine display of his deep voice, suitable for crooning or rock and rolling, guitar work, and musical influences.
The short opening track, “Where I Am Going,” is just Dinizio and his haunting voice. “Nobody but Me” hits hard with heavy bass and crisp drumming while Dinizio sings about taking all the chances in a relationship. “124 MPH” is a great example of Dinizio’s love of “Mersybeat” / early 1960s Liverpool rock with a catchy chorus and backing vocals and fun lyrics about a gal too fast for Dinizio’s endurance.
“Running, Jumping, Standing Still” starts with sounds of a rowdy party (or a live gig) and builds to a Who-like crash of thudding bass, driving guitar, lyrics about being able to do anything Dinizio damn well pleases, and precision drumming. “Everyday World” has Dinizio proclaiming that he doesn’t want his life to be the same old grind with a gal who doesn’t want excitement. The added horn section on the track is a great touch.
“There’s no stopping us,” Dinizio sings on “No Love Lost” – a song that mixes good and sad memories about a relationship. Fortune’s saxophone solo on it showcases his jazz chops. It sounds effortless. “Today it’s you, tomorrow it’s someone else,” Dinizio sings on “Today It’s You,” which features a solid acoustic guitar rhythm layered with heavier electric sounds.
“Liza” is an acoustic ballad, the kind that Dinizio sings well – often channeling his love of Buddy Holly when he does it (as he does here). It floats into “Somewhere Down the Line” – another fine example of Dinizio’s songwriting as he chronicles a relationship that’s clinging to the hope of a vague, better future that probably won’t ever arrive. “You Should Know” is a good rocker, and the closer, “I’d Rather Have the Blues,” is a jazzy blues track suitable for a film noir or a shot of bourbon at two in the morning.
It’s a nice record. Dinizio was a fine songwriter, singer, guitarist, and performer until his untimely death in 2017 at only the age of 62. He left behind a lot of great music, however, and we could all hope to leave even half as much art and joy as he did.
Durand Jones & The Indications release a new single/video, “Love Will Work It Out,” from their forthcoming album, Private Space, out July30th on DeadOceans in association with ColemineRecords. Anchored by the high-low harmonies of AaronFrazer (drums/vocals) and DurandJones (vocals), and rounded out by BlakeRhein (guitar), SteveOkonski (keys), and MikeMontgomery (bass), Private Space leans into hope, coalescing around the idea that joy can set us free. “I want listeners to know that through really rough times something beautiful can be birthed,” says Jones, who proclaims on “Love Will Work It Out” that “All the people lost made me fall right onto my knees/all I could do was cry and shout/I knew I had to trust the faith that love would work it out.” The track – inspired by both the pandemic and social justice movements of the past year – is a mellow groove, as Jones’ voice is carried by drifting keys, relaxed percussion, and elegant strings.
“For months into the pandemic and the racial/political chaos that ensued, we found it hard to write,” says the band. “The biggest creative dry spell we’d experienced in a decade. The constant barrage of horrible news felt overwhelming, and songs just seemed inadequate in response to police murdering people in broad daylight. Songs felt inadequate in the face of a virus that decimated communities and kept us apart from our loved ones. We marched, protested, cried, wiped down our groceries, stopped wiping down our groceries, unplugged, breathed, replugged, reengaged. And when music finally flowed, the first song we wrote together was ‘Love Will Work It Out.’ Because conflict and confrontation require bravery, AND so does keeping the faith in the goodness of one another. It’s a big part of what so many people are fighting for- the benefit of the doubt, the ability to be seen as whole, the space to love and trust. It’s been a tough year, but we’ve come out the other side steady and hopeful.”
The accompanying video, directed by WeirdLife, presents the band’s retro aesthetic as they perform.
Following The Indications’ 2019 album, American Love Call, PrivateSpace unlocks the door to a wider range of sounds, boldly launching the band into a world of synthy modern soul and disco beats dotted with strings. The Indications are true masters at melding revival sounds with a modern attitude. The ten tracks across Private Space provide for both an escapist fantasy and a much-needed recentering after a tumultuous 2020.
Developed after being apart for much of the year, Private Space is creatively explosive and delights in upending expectations. Throughout, The Indications highlight a collective resiliency – as well as the power of a good song to be a light in the darkness. From ideation to the final album cut, Private Space is a meditation on what gets us through isolation and loss: community, love and friendship. As the world slowly resets from the chaos of the past year, Private Space comes at just the right time. “I feel we’ll be arriving into people’s lives as they’re exiting a really tough period,” Frazer theorizes. “We’re not out of the woods, but hopefully this allows people to get together again, to share and experience catharsis.”
Durand Jones & The Indications Tour Dates (new dates in bold): Sat. Sep. 4 – Hershey, PA @ Harrisburg University At The Englewood Tue. Sept. 7 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club w/ 79.5 Wed. Sep. 8 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer w/ 79.5 Fri. Sept. 10 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel w/ 79.5 Sat. Sept. 11 – Washington DC @ 9:30 Club w/ 79.5 Mon. Sept. 13 – Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre w/ 79.5 Tue. Sept. 14 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line w/ 79.5 Thu. Sept. 16 – Denver, CO @ Gothic Theater w/ 79.5 Fri. Sept. 17 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Commonwealth Room w/ 79.5 Mon. Sept. 20 – San Diego, CA @ Soma w/ 79.5 Mon. Sep. 21 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Palladium w/ 79.5 Wed. Sept. 22 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Palladium w/ 79.5 Thu. Sep. 23 – Santa Barbara, CA @ Santa Barbara Bowl w/ My Morning Jacket Fri. Sept. 24 – Dana Point, CA @ Ohana Fest Sat. Sep. 25 – Berkeley, CA @ Greek Theatre at UC Berkeley w/ My Morning Jacket Tue. Sep. 28 – Troutdale, OR @ Edgefield w/ My Morning Jacket Wed. Sep. 29 – Spokane, WA @ Spokane Pavilion at Riverfront w/ My Morning Jacket Fri. Oct. 1 – Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theater w/ My Morning Jacket Sat. Oct. 2 – Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theater w/ My Morning Jacket Sun. Oct. 3 – Bend, OR @ Les Schwab Ampitheater w/ My Morning Jacket Fri. Oct. 8 – Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits Music Festival Thu. Oct. 28 – Sun. Oct. 31 – Live Oak, FL @ Suwanee Hulaween Sun. May 22, 2022 – Monterey, CA @ California Roots Festival
Kansas City-based, Chicago-raised musician, songwriter and chef Liam Kazar announces his debut album, Due North, out August 6th on Woodsist / Mare Records (Kevin Morby’s Woodsist imprint), and today presents a new single/video, “Frank Bacon.” Throughout the last decade, Kazar has been recognized for his adaptability and deftness in the studio and on stage, leading to tours and collaborations with Jeff Tweedy, Chance the Rapper, Steve Gunn, Daniel Johnston, amongst others. While Kazar has consistently been a dream bandmate over the past several years, making his own songs presented a chance to finally find his own voice. Due North is a personal revelation, where the more Kazar wrote, the more his songs showed what kind of artist he’s always wanted to be – one whose own joyous rock songs are so irresistible, full of charm, wit and heart, they feel timeless.
Like most musicians, the pandemic threw Kazar for a loop, knocking out both his touring revenue and his part-time gigs as a bartender. With so much spare time in his Kansas City home, he decided to pursue his longtime love of cooking by creating the restaurant Isfahan, which honors his Armenian heritage and his family’s journey to the United States from Iran, Syria, and Lebanon. “In COVID, my mantra was to not have my heart broken about the future and be present,” says Kazar, explaining that ethos is one of the reasons why he named the LP Due North.
Much like carving out his own space in the food world, learning how to find his own musical style was a rewarding challenge. “This record kind of all stemmed from a conversation I had with Jeff [Tweedy],” says Kazar. “I showed him some of my earliest songs I was working on and he told me, ‘It sounds like you’re writing for the people in your bands, you’re not writing for yourself.’ He was completely right.” With that needed insight, Kazar decided to start from scratch and write songs that felt like himself. Along with Spencer Tweedy and Lane Beckstrom, Kazar enlisted keyboardist Dave Curtin (Woongi), co-producer James Elkington on pedal steel, as well as Ohmme and Andrew Sa on backing vocals. Due North was mixed by Sam Evian at his Flying Cloud Recordings Studio in upstate New York.
During the making of the record, Kazar kept coming back to two words: “joyful” and “vulnerable.” Kazar elaborates: “I was trying to talk about things that I’m scared about but acknowledging that I’m not that powerful and you can still be joyful in the face of your own insecurities.” Take album highlight “Frank Bacon,” where Kazar sings, “When you’re running uphill and swimming upstream / Nothing’s ever gonna be the way it seems.” Despite any lyrical uncertainty the track is bursting with life, especially in the monster groove from the rhythm section of Tweedy and Beckstrom. “With time I’ve grown wary of lying to myself,” says Liam. “I don’t know if it’s a defense mechanism we do, or just something we grow out of, hopefully. But ‘Frank Bacon’ has become a personal mantra in recent years to be honest with myself and stick with it, because I’m worth it. We all are.” The accompanying video was directed by Austin Vesely and shot in Kansas City, MO. Watch Liam Kazar’s Video for “Frank Bacon” Previously released single “Shoes Too Tight,” an undeniable jam with a swaggering exuberance, was a clarifying moment for Kazar in this journey. Kazar slowly tinkered with a synth sound and happened upon the song’s bouncy chord progression, which was “probably the closest to an aha moment that I had of ‘Oh, this is me and this is what I’m into,’” says Kazar. Soon after, Kazar switched gears for the yearning and delicate “On a Spanish Dune” which showcased his emotional resonance as a writer. Though completely different songs, Kazar used these two earliest offerings as guides for what would come next.
Kazar will play his record release showAugust 7th at Chicago’s Sleeping Village. Tickets are available here. In the meantime, Isfahan pop-up events have been announced in Chicago, North Adams, MA, Kansas City, MO, and New York State. A full list of dates can be found below. Watch the “Shoes Too Tight” Video
Due North Tracklist 1. So Long Tomorrow 2. Old Enough For You 3. Shoes Too Tight 4. Nothing To You 5. On a Spanish Dune 6. Frank Bacon 7. I’ve Been Where You Are 8. No Time For Eternity (Ft. Andrew Sa) 9. Give My World 10. Something Tender
Liam Kazar Tour Dates Sat. Aug. 7 – Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village – RECORD RELEASE SHOW
Isfahan Pop-Up Kitchen Events Thu. June 10 – Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village Fri. June 11 – Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village Sat. June 12 – Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village Thu. June 17 – Kansas City, MO @ Kanbe’s Markets Mon. June 28 – North Adams, MA @ Tourists Tue. June 29 – North Adams, MA @ Tourists Wed. July 7 – Mt. Tremper, NY @ The Pines Fri. July 9 – Livingston Manor, NY @ Sunshine Colony Sat. July 10 – Livingston Manor, NY @ Sunshine Colony Sun. July 11 – Livingston Manor, NY @ Sunshine Colony
Central Heat Exchange (C.H.E.) is a collaborative project by musicians spread throughout the US & Canada, primarily in the central time zone. Split across Austin, Chicago, & Winnipeg, its core members are Adam Soloway of Living Hour, Santiago RD of Daphne Tunes and Jacob and Paul Stoltz of Varsity and Pool Holograph, though their forthcoming recorded output involves a broad network of collaborators. Today they are announcing their signing to Birthday Cake, Citrus City and Sunroom Records, and sharing their debut single “Tulips At My Bedside,” which features vocals from Living Hour’s Sam Sarty and contributions from members of Lala Lala and The Hecks.
WATCH: Central Heat Exchange’s “Tulips At My Bedside” Video on YouTube
“‘Tulips at my Bedside’ tells of a brief summer fling and the exploration that happens during and afterward, with themes of self-reflection, health and growth,” explains Sam Sarty. “I see the song as almost a collective joy/celebration of silly everyday things that make up living, especially at the end with the group vocals. Everyone chiming in and almost giddy that we get to experience the simple hellos when we meet each other. That warm humid freedom of a summer night bike ride, with huge birch trees swaying way up above, rooted in the ground that has seen more than you ever will, a deep smile within yourself of knowing rolling around and your legs are alive and the person behind you on a bike is too.“
“Tulips At My Bedside” is available to purchase on Bandcamp and on all streaming services. It will appear on the forthcoming debut LP from Central Heat Exchange, which is expected in the fall of 2021.
Last fall, Chicago-based group Growing Concerns Poetry Collective released BIG DARK BRIGHT FUTURES, an album that finds the common place between the personal and political as it explores the depth of social chaos while conjuring visions of collective transcendence. Today, they are pleased to present a video for the standout track, “First You Need A Body.” Throughout the song, MzKenzie Chinn describes “learning to love her body and sexuality despite a Catholic upbringing” (Bandcamp). Featuring the collective’s three members – McKenzie Chinn, Mykele Deville, and Jeffrey Michael Austin – the video shifts between a south side Chicago beach at dawn, a tennis court, and the home shared by Chinn and Deville. The dreamy visuals (captured by RemsyAtassi) kaleidoscope across environments meant to evoke both the power and delicateness of Black femininity, while lyrics like “You can’t call the cops on a body that can turn into light” celebrate the transformational magic of Black femme sensuality despite the limitations imposed on Black womanhood by anti-Black American culture.
With his new album ‘Dragons‘ set for release June 25th via Houndstooth, Throwing Snow is sharing his new single & video “Traveller“, which follows on from previous singles “Brujita“ and “Halos“.
Speaking about the track, Ross Tones, aka Throwing Snow said “The etymology of the word ‘travel’ originates in ‘to toil’ or ‘labour’.In a modern context, movement is easy for some and near impossible for others, so the word still encapsulates this duality. ‘Traveller’ is journey music and was made from recordings loaded on to the SAMPLR app then manipulated and sequenced.”
Throwing Snow’s fourth album is the audiovisually-augmented Dragons, a work that occupies the space between science and ancestral wisdom. It links music back to its prehistoric capacity for transmitting knowledge to new technology that can untangle the complexity of the contemporary world. Dragons’ ten tracks of heavy primal rhythmic productions incorporate the physicality of acoustic sources, from ancient ritual instruments to modern drum kit, and each track is accompanied by visuals generated by machine learning.
Throwing Snow, aka Ross Tones developed Dragons’ neural network with artist, designer and technologist Matt Woodham. The structures and changes in Tones’ music trigger corresponding changes in accompanying moving images, which combine life in three scales, from microscopic views of rocks to large scale maps. “Everything that happens musically triggers the algorithm to do something,” Tones explains. “This isn’t controlled or predictable, and the music becomes an instruction for the algorithm to make its own decisions about datasets, images, speed, movement and other manipulations.”
The tracks on Dragons match Tones’s ambitions for the album in weight but not complexity. They are intentionally dazzlingly simple in their means, for maximum effect, with repeating motifs, locked basslines, cosmic patterns and full-frequency mids. Often built from four or fewer elements, Tones allows sound to accumulate into his unique take on ritual music for the 21st century. Throbbing ritual dances contain half-remembered earworms revealing glittering night skies of synthesizer patterns – ‘Halos’ stabs and stutters like a dance atop a longbarrow; ‘Purr’ reverberates in silky vibrational motifs; the heavyweight ‘Brujita’ is nu-metal for a past-future ceremony of uncertain purpose.
Tones says he often uses his music as allegory and container for the concepts and theories he’s immersed in – he studied astrophysics, and is fascinated by crafts, archeoacoutics, history, evolution and psychology. In Dragons, he wanted to explore the purpose of music from the beginning of human history. “We have Palaeolithic minds but find ourselves in an increasingly complex and interconnected world,” Tones explains. “Music and art have always been ritualised as a tool for memory, knowledge and emotion, and humans make sense of existence by using tools. Songs were tools of understanding, passed down from our ancestors. Now, things are complex and interrelated, so we can’t use that ancestral knowledge, and need to invent new tools – that’s where machine learning comes into it.”
As is typical for Tones’ Throwing Snow project, the album contains a bold and eclectic mix of instruments, from a bodhrán and daf to cello, with their uses rooted in their inherent acoustic properties. Tones also essentially built his own sample pack for the percussion patterns, working with drummer Jack Baker (Bonobo, Kelis, Alice Russell, Planet Battagon) on an intensive two-day session.
Tones is a Houndstooth stalwart, and Dragons is his fourth full-length album on the label, along with a string of 12”s and EPs. His first album was Mosaic in 2014, followed by Embers in 2017, and Loma in 2018. Originally from the North Of England, for the last few years he has worked from The Castle, his studio an hour outside Bristol/Bath, where he can both forage his own food and find the headspace to make music and experiment with modern technology. He is currently recording a new album with his trio Snow Ghosts, and a soundtrack for a Netflix documentary.
Dragons is a new form of inter-disciplinary album, which is neither wholly electronic nor acoustic, sonic or visual, and pulls from an equally diverse range of inspirations, from texts such as Steven Mithin’s The Singing Neanderthals and Margo Neale and Lynn Kell’s Songlines to the 1982 animated film Flight of Dragons. “I’m into putting music back into history,” Tones explains. “I want to make you think about what music is, what its purpose has been. I’m asking about the scientific aspect to folklore and ancient knowledge, and looking at why it’s still useful. This album is a doorway – if you choose to listen like that.”
Alberto Melloni‘s Red SirenEP was already a hot double-shot of house and trance music, and now two remixes of the EP’s title track have been released from Paradise Palm Records.
The first remix, by Berlin’s Local Suicide, bubbles with industrial bass and dark dance club synths. It’s the kind of track that will instantly awaken you from an early morning groggy state (as it did to me) and keeps you bumping and grooving.
The second remix is by Jacuzzi General, and is a great example of his poolside, luxurious, hedonistic style of house and disco. The synth-bass thuds are pretty much made for slow motion videography of glamorous women walking around, lounging in, and making out by a rooftop pool.
It’s good stuff, and Paradise Palms seems to be hitting everything up the middle for at least a double right now.
Life on the road isn’t all glamour and rock’n’roll excess and MOTÖRHEAD’s punishing tour schedule in 1981 took them all over the globe as they rode high on the success of Ace Of Spades. One integral part of the daily grind on the road is the sound check, although very little of it is ever seen or documented in the public domain. Fortunately during the Short Sharp Pain In The Neck tour of March 1981,
MOTÖRHEAD had a mobile recording studio in tow as they recorded their thunderous, number 1 live album, No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith now celebrating its 40th year. This rare recording of them performing “Stay Clean” as they warmed up for the night at Newcastle on March 30 is accompanied by a video containing behind the scenes montages of the backbone of the MOTÖRHEAD live show; the legendary road crew!
A Place To Bury Strangers share new single/video “I Might Have” from their forthcoming Hologram EP out July 16th onfounding memberOliver Ackermann’s label Dedstrange. Following lead single “End Of The Night,” “I Might Have” is a fuzz-soaked sonic disaster in the best possible way. Past reflections collide with the brutality of a disintegrating world, stories of personal trauma, acceptance, and human failings emerge from the rubble of noise and destitute motorik rhythms. This is A Place To Bury Strangers at its most honest and unfiltered. Hologram serves as an abstract mirror to the moment we live in and “I Might Have” smashes that mirror into a thousand pieces.
“‘I Might Have’ is about the insecurities of life and growing up and when you just have to turn around and say ‘F*ck it,’” says Ackermann. “Life sucks so we may as well have a good time.” The accompanying video visualizes this mentality as it shows the band raucously hanging out together in New York City. Watch “I Might Have” Video
In 2003, A Place To Bury Strangers emerged on the scene out of Ackermann’s psychotropic vision. The band is known for their vicious live performances overloaded with all-consuming visuals, experimental sonic warfare, and treacherous stage antics. 2021 welcomes a lineup change; Ackermann is joined by new members John Fedowitz (bass) and Sandra Fedowitz (drums) of Ceremony East Coast, cementing the most sensational version of the band to date. John and Oliver were childhood friends who had played in the legendary underground shoegaze band Skywave, crafting futuristic punk music together. This next phase is a sonic return to the band’s most raw and unhinged endeavors, pushed even further into a new chaotically apocalyptic incarnation.
A Place To Bury Strangers 2022 Tour Dates: Wed. March 9 – Hamburg, DE @ Hafenklang Thu. March 10 – Dresden, DE @ Beatpol Fri. March 11 – Warsaw, PL @ Klub Poglos Sat. March 12 – Prague, CZ @ Futurum Sun. March 13 – Bratislava, SK @ Randal Club Mon. March 14 – Budapest, HU @ Durer Kert Wed. March 16 – Bucharest, RO @ Control Club Thu. March 17 – Sofia, BG @ Mixtape5 Fri. March 18 – Thessaloniki, GR @ Eightball Sat. March 19 – Athens, GR @ Temple Mon. March 21 – Skopje, MK @ 25th of May Hall Tue. March 22 – Belgrade, RS @ Club Drugstore Thu. March 24 – Zagreb, HR @ MochvaraFri. March 25 – Bologna, IT @ Freakout Club Sat. March 26 – Rome, IT @ Largo Sun. March 27 – Milan, IT @ Legend Club Tue. March 29 – Zurich, CH @ Bogen F Wed. March 30 – Munich, DE @ BackstageThu. March 31 – Martigny, CH @ Caves Du Memoir Fri. April 1 – Paris, FR @ La Trabendo Sat. April 2 – London, UK @ Lafayette Mon. April 4 – Antwerp, BE @ Kavka Tue. April 5 – Munster, DE @ Gleis 22 Wed. April 6 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg Thu. April 7 – Groningen, NL @ Vera Sat. April 9 – Stockholm, SE @ Hus 7 Sun. April 10 – Oslo, NO @ John Dee Mon. April 11 – Copenhagen, DK @ Pumpehuset Tue. April 12 – Berlin, DE @ Hole 44 Wed. April 13 – Cologne, DE @ MTC
Keep your mind open.
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