July 2021 – 7th Level Music

Rewind Review: Shonen Knife – Adventure (2016)

It’s amazing how relevant Shonen Knife‘s 2016 album, Adventure, is to a world emerging from a pandemic in which we were shut in our homes. Shonen Knife have always been one of the most optimistic bands on the planet, and I’ve always believed it’s impossible to be sad if one of their songs is playing. That enthusiasm is everything everyone needs as we leave our cocoons and get back to baseball games, the Dairy Queen, and hugging each other.

The album opens with “Jump into the New World,” with Naoko‘s lead guitar and bouncy vocals encouraging us to “Feel a bright light, yeh, yeh, with a happy song in your heart.” and “Challenge yourself, yeh, yeh, with a happy song in your heart.” “Rock ‘n’ Roll T-shirt” (with guest background vocals by Naru) is an ode to band shirts, and it’s amazing no one else before Shonen Knife thought to write a song about them. Naoko proudly declares that she wears them to bed, at shows, and everywhere else. “Calabash” has a great bass walk from Atsuko, and a saucy solo from Naoko.

“Dog Fight” (with Ritsuko on guest bass) is a story of Naoko visiting a beach and walking into a scene with two dogs engaged in a brawl. The beat and rhythm are too peppy to be depressing. “Wasabi,” with Atsuko on lead vocals, is one of many Shonen Knife’s songs about food; and, like so many others, it shreds. Risa (who is an absolute beast behind a drum kit) puts down a wicked surf beat and, thanks to Atsuko, I’ve learned that wasabi is good with avocado. Risa takes the lead vocals on “Green Tangerine (Kabosu),” which, on its face, is about eating the fruit, but, below the surface, is about embracing an unknown future.

“ImI (emoji)” is a salute to the “devil horn” sign of metal (“They say that it was created by DIO a long time ago. Keeping us away from evil harm. Now! You’ve got the power.”), and it appropriately rocks. Naoko sings about her dream vacation on “Hawaii” – a song that blends psychedelic surf guitar with Risa’s beach cook-out drums. Naru picks up the bass on “Tasmanian Devil,” another fun Shonen Knife song about a cute, furry animal that can be quite vicious. The album ends with “Cotton Candy Clouds” (with Ritsuko on backing vocals) – a lovely track about wanting to eat clouds because they look like the delicious fair food.

It’s a fun record, as is par for the course with a Shonen Knife album. They continue to make fun music and live the high life. We should all be so lucky to have an adventure like that.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: My Bloody Valentine – EP’s 1988 – 1991 (2012)

Released almost a decade ago, but sounding like it could’ve come out yesterday, My Bloody Valentine‘s collection of EP’s and rarities, appropriately titled EP’S 1988 – 1991, is a two-disc wallop of sound that collects the band’s four, rare EP’s and multiple bonus tracks.

The first five tracks on disc 1 come from 1988’s You Made Me Realise. The title track, with its punishing drums and bass, opens things with enough fuzz for an entire album (and reveals the massive influence MBV had on A Place to Bury Strangers). Debbie Googe‘s heavy bass propels “Slow” while Kevin Shields‘ guitar sounds like he left it in the sun too long. “Thorn” more than doubles the speed of the previous track and has some of Shield’s clearest vocals, which almost seem odd to hear when you’re used to so many tracks dripping with reverb and distortion. “Cigarette in Your Bed” does a neat balancing act with Bilinda Butcher‘s ethereal vocals and Colm Ó Cíosóig‘s voodoo drumming. “Drive It All Over Me” is one of MBV’s most upbeat tracks and makes you want to road trip with your friends.

The next four tracks are from the Feed Me with Your Kiss EP (also from 1988) . The title track also appears on their Isn’t Anything album from the same year. It’s a wild track with Shields and Butcher trading vocals while all four band members bounce around the room like a punch-drunk boxer intent on destroying everything in his path. “I Believe,” with its pounded piano keys, seems to indicate a love of The Stooges. Shields’ vocals on “Emptiness Inside” have a bit of a punk sneer to them, and Googe’s bass spares no mercy throughout it. “I Need No Trust” could’ve been a Velvet Underground track in a previous life.

MBV returned in 1990 with the Glider EP, and the lead single, “Soon,” became one of their biggest hits. It’s no surprise. The song is a shoegaze delight with Cíosóig’s beats sounding like early rave riffs, Googe’s hip-shaking bass, and Butcher and Shields’ twin wall-of-sound guitars and soft vocals. The EP’s title track sounds like it’s made up of parts of “Soon” played backwards. “Don’t As Why” brings in acoustic guitars to mesh with the fuzz and is a song Oasis probably wishes they’d written. “Off Your Face” has a bit of a psychedelic bend and some of Butcher’s loveliest vocals on any MBV track.

Disc 2 starts with the Tremolo EP from 1991, and the first cut, “To Here Knows When,” also appears on their classic Loveless album from the same year. It’s a swirling, fog-like track that seems to envelop you with its fuzzy, bright warmth. “Swallow” has Middle Eastern touches in its percussion and even adds a flute to the mix. “Honey Power” again puts Butcher on lead vocals and deftly moves back and forth between shoegaze pop and shoegaze power. “Moon Song” begins like some sort of death dirge, but soon turns into an incense smoke mind trip.

What follows are rare tracks and previously unreleased material. “Instrumental No. 2″ (the mellow one) and Instrumental No. 1” (the scorching one) are from a bonus 7-inch single released with Isn’t Anything. The full version of “Glider” (from 1990’s Glider E.P. Remixes) is over ten minutes of psychedelic drone. “Sugar” is from a rare 1989 split 7-inch flexi-disc and sounds like a Nine Inch Nails song if Trent Reznor were a lot happier in 1989.

The last three songs are the previously unreleased ones – “Angel” (seductive shoegaze with lead vocals by Butcher), “”Good for You” (a high-speed fuzz-fest), and “How Do You Do It” (a dangerous track with everyone playing their instruments like a professional hit squad). All of them are great treats to hear.

This stuff is essential if you’re a fan of MBV, shoegaze, noise rock, drone rock, or guitar rock…or even just rock in general. MBV are still a powerhouse and a band with whom you should not trifle. Approach with caution, but you’ll love them if you embrace the power.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Ennio Morricone – Morricone Segreto

Containing seven previously unreleased tracks and twenty more rare film score tracks, Morricone Segreto from the Cam Sugar label is a great treat for fans of the maestro – Ennio Morricone. Most of these tracks are from giallo, horror, and crime films from 1969 to 1983 – and all of them have weird, psychedelic jazz touches that showcase what kind of genius Morricone was.

The previously unreleased alternate take of “Vie-Ni” (from the film When Love Is Lust from 1973) starts off the album with sharp vocal sounds, plucked string instruments, and a piano that sounds like a clock in a haunted house. “Fantasmi Grotteschi (Edit)” (from 1980’s Stark System) blends lounge jazz with circus-like arrangements. Vita E Malavita” could work in either a comedic chase scene, a psychological thriller chase scene, or as the opening credits of a mystery film featuring a wizened detective (but is actually from a 1975 film about teenage prostitution).

“Tette E Antenne, Tetti E Gonne” is the longest track on the album (5:10) and has a bit of a bossa nova flavor to it that makes it dreamy (despite it being from an espionage thriller from 1975). The alternate take of “Patrizia” (from 1971’s Incontro) is anothe dreamy track with a cool lounge groove running through it. “Per Dalila” is pure bedroom jazz with its sultry organ and supple beats.

“18 Pari” continues the bedroom grooves with its fine touches, which are perfect for a film about a safecracker looking to do one last score (1972’s The Master Touch). The previously unreleased “Psychedelic Mood” will put you into that within seconds. “Fuggire Lontano (Edit)” has a bit of a Motown sound with its bass and drums, and the rest is cool jazz…until that fuzzy guitar comes in to melt your brain.

“Jukebox Psychedelique” has Middle Eastern guitars and instrumentation, just to throw you for a bit of a loop and prove that the Maestro could compose anything he damn well pleased. “Fondati Timori” is downright creepy, with the snare drums sounding like rattlesnakes and the horns like an angry nest of hornets. Speaking of instruments sounding dangerous, everything from the vibraphone to the synthesizers on “Edda Bocca Chiusa” (another previously unreleased track) sounds like its stalking you.

“Non Può Essere Vero” is a perfect track for 1972’s My Dear Killer, as the whole thing sounds like the theme song for a professional hitman who probably drinks too much and has one last score to settle. “Eat It” is not a cover of Weird Al Yankovic‘s parody of Michael Jackson‘s “Beat It,” but it is a weird track full of fuzzy guitar, Phantom of the Opera organ work, strip club beats, and what sounds like people wailing in agony. It also features Morricone on trumpet. “Nascosta Nell’ombra” has a wild organ (a Hammond B3?) riff running around the room for about a minute straight.

“Dramma Su Di Noi” exchanges the organ for psychedelic guitar and juke joint piano. “Lui Per Lei,” the title track from the 1971 film of the same name, could easily be the opening theme to a soap opera…or a softcore porn film. “Beat Per Quattro Ruote” is a slow, trippy jam with drum beats that sound like they’re happily drunk. “Stark System (Rock)” is the theme you’ll want in your earbuds during your next cardio-kickboxing class, because it will make you feel like a bad ass mofo.

“Il Clan Dei Siciliani (Tema N. 5)” is the title track to the film of the same name from 1969, and it’s perfect for a crime movie with its driving beat and suspense-inducing guitar and synths. “René La Canne” is the title track to another film (from 1977) that leans heavily on vintage 1970s synths. Police whistles take on a prominent role on “Ore 22,” as do woodwinds and gritty percussion instruments. “Sinfonia Di Una Città – Seq. 4” sounds like something Morricone might’ve conjured up with John Carpenter. “L’incarico” is the sound of a lonely trumpeter playing outside a closed jazz club at 3am.

“L’immoralità (Edit)” (from 1978’s film of the same name), meanwhile, is the soundtrack of that jazz player having a nightcap with the lovely singer from the club. The previously unreleased “Insequimento Mortale” is full of panicked strings, which is befitting for a song from a film about a psychopath with a venom-dipped knife stalking women at a health spa. The closing track is the haunting, breathy “Macchie Solari (Versione Singolo).” It’s from a 1974 film of the same name about a morgue attendant who gets caught up in a string of murders. In other words, it’s perfect for a Morricone score.

The whole album is great, and will make you want to track down these obscure films. The Maestro’s catalog never seems to end, which is fine by me.

Keep your mind open.

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Caleb Landry Jones announces new album – “Gadzooks Vol. 1” – due September 24th.

“The perspectives from which I write, jump erratically and can turn on a dime. Others grow and burn, only to sometimes vanish on the spot, just before the hat drops. . . My intention is to not rob the listener of their own fantasies by describing the annals of purpose which in turn, only unearth a fragile magic. I am interested only in the album’s response by its audience. The album is there to be digested, not by the front of your brain, but by the back. It is for the lover of labyrinths and quagmires.” — Caleb Landry Jones

Over the weekend, Caleb Landry Jones won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival for his role in the film, Nitram. Today, the actor, musician, and visual artist announces his new album, Gadzooks Vol. 1, out September 24th on Sacred Bones, and presents lead single/visualizer “Bogie.” The follow-up to his debut, The Mother Stone, Gadzooks Vol. 1 moves from joy to despair, from horror to glib humor. Its sounds range from spider-like wisps of neo-psychedelia through to vast swathes of synthetic chords; it’s thrilling, shocking, and wonderfully entertaining as each song starts and finishes in entirely unique places, often totally divorced from each other. Lead single “Bogie” lurches with brass and tumbling percussion. Caleb’s voice cuts through as he continues to enter new terrains.

Watch Caleb Landry Jones’ “Bogie” Visualizer by Jacqueline Castel

Just a few months after recording The Mother Stone, Gadzooks Vol. 1 was written in Albuquerque, New Mexico while filming the dystopian themed film, Finch, alongside Tom Hanks. “I stole from what was around me, what fell out of the television, what passed below my windows, relationships, old and new. My frustrations, desires, day dreams and fears scattered themselves throughout my writing,” says Caleb. “It is a direct response to the album before it. I felt whatever I wrote next needed to be more consistent. I knew that I wanted to put everything down on tape. I wanted the same players as before but to go further.” He’d idle away his hours on location by focusing on creativity, and when filming stopped, Caleb knew he had to get straight back into the studio.

Caleb would soon link with the same cast who formed The Mother Stone, including producer Nic Jodoin, based out of the elegant Valentine Recording Studio in Los Angeles, and Drew Erickson who handled string and horn arrangements. Together, Caleb and Nic would work 18-hour days, bringing Caleb’s vision into focus. Recording to tape, Caleb would hack away at each take, reassembling the songs like Escher diagrams. “It’s like when you’re swimming in the pool and you’re doing a bit of butterfly, and then that gets old after a while. So then you start doing breaststroke, and then that gets old after a while. I think it’s just a reaction from the place where we were before.”

Part of a flood-tide of creativity – as its title suggests, a second half to this album is already on the horizon.

Pre-order Gadzooks Vol. 1

Gadzooks Vol. 1 Tracklist
1. Never Wet
2. Yesterday Will Come
3. The Loon
4. Bogie
5. Gloria
6. California
7. For A Short Time
8. A Slice of Dream
9. This Won’t Come Back

Keep your mind open.

[Gadzooks! You haven’t subscribed?]

[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Mega Bog puts down the “Weight of the Earth, on Paper” with her new single.

Mega Bog (the world-inhabiting moniker of song-animator Erin Birgy) presents a new single/video, “Weight of the Earth, on Paper,” off of her forthcoming album, Life, and Another, out July 23rd (vinyl out August 27th) on Paradise of Bachelors. Following “Station to Station,” “Weight of the Earth, on Paper,” stirs with lightly moving percussion, keys, and Birgy’s velvet voice. In the track, named after the collection of memoir tapes by the artist David Wojnarowicz, poppies sprout in Birgy’s shadow and scare her companion while harpies circle above Loch Ness. For the self-directed video, Birgy enlisted the help of friends, including Big Thief’s James Krivchenia (who co-produced the album), Adrianne Lenker, and more. “The video for ‘Weight of the Earth, on Paper’ came out more pure Mega Bog than I even expected,” says Birgy. “We are a community of deep friends and collaborators, who move through the world as scrappy little archeologists who love to play dress up. I’m so thrilled to have the friends I have show up and trust me over and over again, and I’ll always be there to do the same.”

Watch Mega Bog’s Video for “Weight of the Earth, on Paper”

Recorded over several sessions in various studios—the Unknown in Anacortes, Washington, Way Out in Woodinville, Washington, and Tropico Beauty in Glendale, California—Life, and Another features instrumental contributions from longtime and new collaborators, including Aaron Otheim, Zach Burba of iji, Will Segerstrom, Matt Bachmann, Andrew Dorset of Lake, James Krivchenia of Big Thief, Meg Duffy of Hand Habits, Jade Tcimpidis, Alex Liebman, and co-engineers Geoff Treager and Phil Hartunian. The album was written while Birgy cohabited with co-producer, engineer, and percussionist James Krivchenia in a small cabin near the Rio Grande. There, Birgy found herself often alone between their separate touring schedules. These isolations opened a familiar black hole of troubling projections, and any desire to remain positive continued to fold back into self-destructive thought and fear. Over time, a budding interest in mindfulness, attachment theory, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and rage gave way to new productive brain processes. These creative juices followed Birgy on the road and into subsequent lonely bedrooms as the songs continued to flow.

Departing from the humid spider plant nursery of previous record Dolphine (2019), Life, and Another brings us back to our home planet, into the rarefied air pressure of a desert valley where its fourteen songs were written and scattered like stones in the landscape, each one a precious gem chiseled by Birgy. It stages a semi-fictionalized drama in the interior self, with scenes of collective longing at the bowling alley, disputes over a distended memory outside the bar, and solitary circling on the patio, looking out over the yard in stubborn awe. These memories, from both past and future, bubble up throughout the album. Life, and Another is another fantastical off-world transmission and her most sophisticated, exploratory, and accessible statement yet.

A limited-edition Life, and Another photo and song book, featuring images, songwriting and studio notes, collages and texts by Erin Birgy, and drawings by Zach Burba, designed by Joel Gregory, is available exclusively via Paradise of Bachelors.

Watch the “Station to Station” Video

Pre-order Life, and Another

Keep your mind open.

[No paper here, just e-mail updates when you subscribe.]

[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Protomartyr announce fall U.S. tour.

In 2020, Protomartyr’s tour was cut short due to the pandemic. Today, they announce a fresh North American tour in support of Ultimate Success Today, their “eloquent, paranoid, and ultimately thrilling” (The FADER) album released last year on Domino. For this tour, they’ll be joined by Kelley Deal from the Breeders/R. Ring (some lucky fans got a sneak peek of this lineup prior to COVID lockdown). Additionally, Protomartyr are making their Ultimate Success Today visual album public. The visual album presents a video for each song, all made during quarantine except for “Processed By The Boys,” and edited together into a seamless short film. The filmmakers responsible for each song’s video are Dominic Ciccodicola, David Allen, Nathan Faustyn, Joseph Howard (with illustrations by drummer Alex Leonard), Trevor Naud, Ashley Armitage, Yoonha Park, and Jeremy Franchi. Tickets can be purchased here.

PURCHASE ULTIMATE SUCCESS TODAY
Domino Mart | Digital

WATCH THE VISUAL ALBUM

WATCH THE VIDEO FOR “MICHIGAN HAMMERS”

WATCH THE VIDEO FOR “WORM IN HEAVEN”

WATCH THE VIDEO FOR “PROCESSED BY THE BOYS”

PROTOMARTYR TOUR DATES
Nov. 8 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
Tue. Nov. 9 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
Wed. Nov. 10 – Davenport, IA @ Raccoon Motel
Thu. Nov. 11 – Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club
Fri. Nov. 12 – Kalamazoo, MI @ Bell’s
Sat. Nov. 13 – Detroit, MI @ UFO Factory
Sun. Nov. 14 – Detroit, MI @ UFO Factory
Tue. Nov. 16 – Cleveland, OH @ Mahall’s
Wed. Nov. 17 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
Thu. Nov. 18 – Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere
Fri. Nov. 19 – Kingston, NY @ Tubby’s
Sat. Nov. 20 – Kingston, NY @ Tubby’s
Sun. Nov. 21 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Club Cafe

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe before you go.]

[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Nation of Language share “Wounds of Love.”

Brooklyn trio Nation Of Language returned last month with ‘Across That Fine Line’, announcing their new album A Way Forward to be released on 5th November 2021. Pre-order the album HERE. Today, they share new single ‘Wounds of Love’, a song about feeling directionless after an emotional breakup, with a DIY lyric video made by singer Ian Devaney himself.

Listen to ‘Wounds of Love’ HERE.

On the single Ian says, “‘Wounds of Love’ is a song about getting caught in a mental feedback loop when a relationship ends. It’s an endless inner argument – wanting to move on defiantly, but feeling utterly lost about how to do it when the other person has informed so much about how you see yourself. For every bit of progress there’s just as much retreating, and eventually it seems like this back-and-forth becomes the new root of your identity – still tied to the same person, just without them actually being there.”

He adds, “During its creation, the song was really born out of the main riff – I was experimenting with synth sounds and delay pedals, trying to find something that felt kind of like Man Machine era Kraftwerk, and this simple melody just flowed out. At first the urge was to go very robotic with it, but a laid-back groove fell into place and gave everything a really warm, spacey, stoned feeling, which felt like it amplified the emotional haze that the song deals with.”

A Way Forward is the follow up to Nation Of Language’s highly acclaimed debut album, Introduction, Presence, released in 2020 during the early stages of COVID’s merciless mayhem. Unable to promote the album in any traditional live sense, the record grew through a flurry of rave reviews and airplay from radio stations around the world, ultimately landing on year-end ‘Best of’ lists from Rough Trade, Stereogum, Paste, Under The Radar, and NME.

With the pandemic putting so much on hold, Nation Of Language (Ian Devaney, with keyboardist Aidan Noell and bassist Michael Sue-Poi), decided to forge ahead and begin work on what would become A Way Forward. While much of the sounds on Introduction, Presence garnered comparisons to the synth-punk sound of the 80’s, with this new set of songs the band delved heavily into the Krautrock pioneers and electronic experimentalists of the 70’s for inspiration in the studio, stretching their boundaries in new and different ways. Production on the record was divided between Abe Seiferth (who worked on Introduction, Presence) and Nick Milhiser of Holy Ghost!

Due to perform at the sold out Reading and Leeds Festival this year, Nation Of Language announce a January 2022 tour of the UK and EU including dates in London, Manchester, Dublin, Glasgow, and Leeds.

Tickets are on sale and available HERE.

Nation Of Language UK/EU Tour Dates:

27th Aug 2021 – Leeds Festival SOLD OUT

29th Aug 2021 – Reading Festival SOLD OUT

10th Jan 2022 – Cologne @ YUCA

11th Jan 2022 – Antwerp @ TRIX Bar

12th Jan 2022 – Amsterdam @ Paradisio

14th Jan 2022 – Hamburg @ Turmzimmer

15th Jan 2022 – Copenhagen@ Ideal Bar

16th Jan 2022 – Stockholm @ Obaren

17th Jan 2022 – Oslo @ Bla

19th Jan 2022 – Berlin @ Kantine am Berghain

20th Jan 2022 – Zurich, CH @ Kater

22nd Jan 2022 – Barcelona, ES @ Laut

23rd Jan 2022 – Madrid @ Sala El Sol

25th Jan 2022 – Paris @ Supersonic

27th Jan 2022 – Leeds @ Hyde Park Book Club

28th Jan 2022 – Glasgow @ Broadcast

29th Jan 2022 – Dublin @ The Grand Social

30th Jan 2022 – Manchester @ YES Basement

31st Jan 2022 – London @ Lafayette

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Amy at Prescription Music PR.]

Angel Olsen releases a cover of “Gloria” from upcoming EP of 1980’s music cover songs.

Today, Angel Olsen announces the Aisles EP, comprised of head turning covers of ‘80s classics and the debut release on her new Jagjaguwar imprintsomethingscosmic, out August 20th (digitally) and September 24th (physically). The EP features ambitious takes on five covers, including today’s “Gloria” (Laura Branigan), plus “Eyes Without A Face” (Billy Idol), “Safety Dance”(Men Without Hats), “If You Leave” (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark) and “Forever Young” (Alphaville). Olsen comments, “I know it’s not really in my history to do something unintentional or just for the hell of it, but my connection to these songs is pretty straightforward, I just wanted to have a little fun and be a little more spontaneous, and I think I needed to remember that I could!”

The Aisles EP was recorded in the winter of 2020 at Asheville’s Drop of Sun Studios with co-producer and engineer Adam McDaniel. Olsen had known McDaniel for years, and became better acquainted while trying to conquer the audio of live-stream at-home performances last spring. McDaniel and his wife Emily opened their home to Olsen throughout the previous summer and made it a safe space to create and let go before beginning tracking. “I told Adam I had an idea to record some covers and bring some of the band into the mix, or add other players. I needed to laugh and have fun and be a little less serious about the recording process in general,” says Olsen. “I thought about completely changing some of the songs and turning them inside out. I’d come over to find Adam had set up five or so synthesizers, and we’d get lost on a part for a while messing with some obscure pedal I knew nothing about. We’d spend a good amount of time going through sounds before finding one or two, sometimes we’d get real weird and decide to just go with it. ”

Olsen’s take on “Gloria,” released today, crawls with reverberating synth and an arresting cello arrangement. As the song nears its end, her vocals ricochet into a dramatic vibrato. “I’d heard ‘Gloria’ for the first time at a family Christmas gathering and was amazed at all the aunts who got up to dance. I imagined them all dancing and laughing in slow motion, and that’s when I got the idea to slow the entire song down and try it out in this way.”

Angel Olsen’s Aisles EP follows the Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories Box Set, released this past spring, and her new single with Sharon Van Etten, “Like I Used To.” It is the premiere release for somethingscosmic. “I’m very excited to be introducing somethingscosmic, an imprint that will serve as the home for all my covers, collaborations, and one off singles,” says Olsen. “In this time away from touring I have been inspired to create more, and somethingscosmic will give the me flexibility to release when and how I want to with the help from my longtime partners at Jagjaguwar. The hope is that it will become a place for all of my creative endeavors, music and otherwise.”
Listen to Angel Olsen’s “Gloria”

Pre-order Aisles EP

Aisles EP Tracklist
1. Gloria
2. Eyes Without A Face
3. Safety Dance
4. If You Leave
5. Forever Young

Angel Olsen Tour Dates
Sat. Sept. 11 – Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival
Fri. Oct. 29 – Sun. Oct. 31 – San Francisco, CA @ Outside Lands Music Festival

Keep your mind open.

[Why not subscribe? I mean, you’re here.]

[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Anika – Change

Dreamy. Sexy. Mysterious. Alluring. Distant. Intimate. Psychedelic. Stylish. All of those adjectives could sum up Anika‘s fine new album, Change. Or they could not. Those could all be projections one puts upon the record as it shape-shifts across its span.

The opening bass and beats of “Finger Pies” sets you off on a train across Western Europe late at night and has you noticing a beautiful person across the dining car that may be a spy, murderess, hitman, painter, or tourist looking for adventure. “My intention is my intention,” Anika sings. We don’t need to know. She’s keeping that secret for now, which only makes her more intriguing.

“Critical” is a tale of danger, both of love and of delusion, told with processed dance beats. “I always give my man the last word. I always give him what he deserves, but don’t forget that little twist of cyanide in his little gift,” she sings as futuristic synths build around her like a digital cloak. The album’s title track is possibly the most uplifting song of the year. Anika encourages us to move away from illusions and comfortable patterns of behavior in order to conquer fear and embrace one another. “We could do well to listen sometimes, and not just shout around things we know nothing about. But I think we have it all inside. I think we can learn from each other. I think we can change.” It’s a great anthem for 2021 and beyond.

Anika continues that call to action on the somewhat industrial “Naysayer” with lyrics like “Youngblood, I’m calling on you. Stand, standing tall and take what’s yours. Time, time to run the show.” “Sand Witches” is downright creepy with its warped bass and Anika’s lyrics about rivers running red with blood in England – a country she barely recognizes anymore. “Never Coming Back” is a synthwave ode to things that have slipped away from us without us even noticing (“I saw the signs. I chose to ignore them. I saw all the warnings. I saw them all.”).

“Rights” is a call to women everyone to reclaim their power (“Tall, small, tiny, full and feel your power!”). “Freedom” has Anika expressing her power underneath a Terminator film score-like synth sizzle. One can’t help but think the lyrics of “I’m not being silenced by anyone…I’m not being silenced by my learned mutism…I’m not being silenced, least by you.” reflect on something that happened over the last decade. Changes is, after all, Anika’s first solo record in eleven years. The closing track, “Wait for Something,” is a mostly acoustic heartbreaker with Anika telling a tale of how she waited and waited “for something to come…for something to break through,” but realizing that holding onto the past only drags you to death.

Anika had a lot on her mind from the last decade, and she let it all out on Changes. She has spoken about how all the lyrics of the album were written on the spot without a filter or second thoughts. There is optimism and sorrow, but few pangs of regret. We could all do well to follow her example and let go of things dragging us down into a place we think is comfortable but is actually a tomb.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe before you go.]

[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Desert Daze announces its 2021 lineup.

Desert Daze makes its post-pandemic return this November with a limited capacity three-day festival and a bit of a scaled-down lineup. Don’t wait to get your tickets because they will go quick and why wouldn’t you want to go to a low-capacity festival with this many good bands playing it?

The Black Angels are always great live. Kikagaku Moyo are also legendary live performers. Tim Heidecker performing his Fear of Death album is worth the price of admission on Friday, and you also get to see Moon Duo, Ty Segall, and Deap Vally all on the same day. The Budos Band will get you grooving on Saturday. They’re a great funk band.

Tickets can be snagged right here.

Keep your mind open.

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