I went to the first of two shows A Place to Bury Strangers, Glove, and Ganser were playing at Chicago’s Empty Bottle beginning on the evening of Memorial Day. The holiday Monday night crowd was small, as many people were still returning home from the weekend or still gone on vacation, and due to every restaurant in the area being closed. I had to walk over twenty minutes to find an open Jimmy John’s.
Shame on you if you missed the show due to being hungover from a backyard barbecue or stuck at some family gathering full of drama and your bigoted uncle rating while he spilled mustard on his shirt. You missed a wild show.
Chicago’s own Ganser were first up, and they put on a solid set of post-punk that had influences of Joy Division and The Cure all through it. Their guitarist, Charlie Landsman, seems to play like he has no idea what he’s doing, but that’s kind of the point. My friend, Rafael (bass player for Chicago death metal band Asphyxiator), marveled at the sound Alicia Gaines got out of her bass throughout the whole set (“Her bass tone is really good!”).
Ganser
Glove were up next, and they reminded me of a heavier version of Ladytron. The throbbing synth beats mixed well with their post-punk guitars and krautrock vocals. Their set grew a bit darker as it went on, which was all right by me.
Glove fitting well on stage.
APTBS as always, came out and demolished the place. I wondered how loud it was going to be, as they’re one of the loudest bands out there and the Empty Bottle is a small venue. Sure enough, my feet were vibrating by the time they got to the heaviest version of “Oceans” I’ve heard them play.
Oliver Ackermann in his natural element – using a strobe light to play his guitar like its a washboard.
One of the best parts of APTBS‘ set was seeing how much fun they were having. Ackermann told me early in the evening that he was happy to be back out on the road and seeing everyone. He and his friends, the husband and wife duo of John and Sandra Fedowitz, were grinning through a lot of the set and having a blast as they melted faces and minds. You can always tell who is attending one of their shows for the first time because they always have the same “What the hell is happening?” look on their faces. I saw a lot of that.
A Place to Bury Strangers exploding heads in Chicago.
Go catch them if you can. You won’t regret it.
Keep your mind open.
[Thanks to Steven at Dedstrange for the press pass!]
With new album ‘Honeymoon Suite‘ out June 17th via Hand Mirror, the label Harkin founded in 2019 with her wife, the poet Kate Leah Hewett, today Harkin is sharing her new single “Here Again“, featuring brass by Nate Walcott (Bright Eyes) and Aaron Roche (Lower Dens, Sufjan Stevens, Anohni, Flock of Dimes).
Speaking about the track, Harkin said “‘Here Again’ is a song about the timelessness and of love and loss. It’s about the dance of raw vulnerability and galvanising strength that comes with both, how each are transcendent and everyday. Everyone seems to mention how time has worked differently the last few years, and for me that really crystallised in my experiences of love and loss.
My grandad, who passed away years ago, wrote poetry and the line about dancing away references a poem he wrote about his own feelings on mortality. In some ways it feels like an ongoing conversation with him. It’s been hard over the last few years to feel like I’m remaining porous and open to life when there are so many reasons to want to shut it out. This song is a reminder to let it all in.”
‘Honeymoon Suite’ are a blend of love, grief, anxiety, resilience, danger, heartbreak and hope. Part pop record, part electronic soundscape, part interior still life, ‘Honeymoon Suite’ was recorded in a one bedroom flat in the depths of UK lockdowns
The album marks a significant shift for an artist who had previously built a career around collaboration. In addition to her own bands, Harkin has been a touring member of Sleater-Kinney, Wild Beasts, Flock of Dimes, and Kurt Vileand Courtney Barnett’s Sea Lice. She performed backing vocals for Dua Lipa on Saturday Night Live. She dueted with comedian Sarah Silverman on ‘Tiny Changes: A Celebration of Frightened Rabbit’s The Midnight Organ Fight’. Her studio work includes contributions to Waxahatchee’s ‘Out In The Storm’. Outside of the music world, Harkin has composed for Turner Prize-winning artist Helen Marten and British comedian Josie Long. She even has a Saturday Night Live sketch named after her (Fred Armisen’s 2016 ‘Harkin Brothers Band’).
Where her self-titled first record is infused with the expansiveness which birthed it – written and recorded while touring the globe – ‘Honeymoon Suite’ is an entirely different affair. The album was written in the same room in which Harkin and her wife ate all their meals, held their virtual wedding reception and attended a funeral over zoom. As Harkin describes it, ‘Honeymoon Suite’ is “a ship in a bottle of that time”.
The album takes its title from the couple’s affectionate nickname for the flat they found themselves living in after relocating from their then-home in Hudson, New York, where Harkin’s wife was working as a live music promoter until the pandemic was declared. When it became obvious that they would both be out of work indefinitely, they joined many others heeding the call of their home nations to repatriate. In addition to that frenzied move back to the UK, the couple’s planned wedding also took a hard left turn. They had intended to hold a wedding for 150 in September 2020. Instead, they got married in a small, outside ceremony in front of their bubbled parents and siblings. They were married in the Derbyshire village of Eyam, coincidentally famous for quarantining itself during The Bubonic Plague. The flowers in the image on the album’s back cover are their wedding bouquets. “I followed a YouTube tutorial and made our bouquets out of the wedding flowers our friends sent us. We didn’t take a honeymoon and still haven’t. Instead, the flat in Sheffield became our honeymoon suite.”
The album’s DIY ethos continued through its artwork. “Kate took the cover photo and designed the layout. She also designed our original wedding invitations so it felt apt.”
The album also marks Harkin’s first forays into self-producing, a journey she began immediately after her move back to the UK. At that time, her best friend, cinematographer Ashley Connor, asked her to create the soundtrack for an experimental short film she was making for Sam Abbas’ quarantine movie ‘Erēmīta (Anthologies)’. “I’ve worked in all manner of studios and assumed many different roles in music making. I had thousands of flight hours but I had still never been the pilot. Owning the role of producer was more of a mental block than anything else, but circumstance dissolved that intimidation. Working on Ashley’s soundtrack early in the pandemic gave me the confidence to continue producing my own solo work. I won a grant from the PPL Momentum Accelerator Fund which would cover the mixing and mastering if I could be self-sufficient in recording. It felt like the quest I needed to push me into discovering this new direction.”
In terms of instrumentation, ‘Honeymoon Suite’ is more electronic than Harkin’s previous work and this too was for largely practical reasons. “Kate took a remote call centre job when we first got back. This meant we were in the same room, her taking customer service calls and me working on the album. The flat was also above a pub, so I had to record strategically. I’d program drum machines and synths in the day, record guitars in the evenings over the din of the pub-goers, and I’d squeeze vocals into the quiet weekend mornings.”
Indeed, most of the tracks on ‘Honeymoon Suite’ emerged out of synth drones, a refuge for Harkin during the weeks at a time that she didn’t feel like bursting into song. “The album’s glitches and degrading samples reflect the limitations of the digital intimacy we were all relying on during that time as we literally phoned it in.”
Harkin freely admits that the enormity of the task was no walk in the park for the first time producer. “Being my own mirror was ego-crushing at times; I knew these songs deserved extra gusto that I had to outsource.” That’s where the brass by Nate Walcott and Aaron Roche, slide guitar by J.R. Bohannon (Torres) and backing vocals by Sophie Galpin (Soft Lad, Self Esteem) came in, sent down the wire from their respective homes. It was even mixed and mastered remotely (mixed by Jeff T Smith in Leeds and mastered by Guy Davie in London).
As Harkin puts it, “for me, this album was a rabbit hole and escape hatch. It’s a very vulnerable record. There are no performances – I made it alone. Releasing it into the world feels like an extension of the solitary process and remote collaboration which created it. I hope it travels far and wide.”
Ultraflex is an interdisciplinary collaboration between Farao (NO) and Special-K (IS) and today they are sharing their new single & video “Rhodos“, which showcases another glimpse of their playful disco-pop.
“Rhodos” is an ode to Northern European tourists partying in the South of Europe (Mallorca, Ibiza, Rhodes etc.) It honours pink beer bellies, Smirnoff Ice and the smell of aftersun and is inspired by Ultraflex’s own experience of getting liquor poured straight into their mouths by flexing bartenders at a time in their lives when belly rings and miss sixty jeans were of the utmost importance.
The track is accompanied by a jeggings and jewels filled music video filmed in Greece, directed by Sigurlaug Gisladottir. In the words of the band, “‘Rhodos’ was written in deep pandemic, when we were desperately craving to party. Longing after people yelling in our ears, everyone bumping into each other, stepping on our toes and the sensation of cold beer flowing down our backs. Writing Rhodos immediately transported us to a hot and sticky beach, a place we loved and loathed equally.”
Ultraflex released their saucy debut albumVisions of Ultraflexwas released in 2020 to critical and popular acclaim, winning The Icelandic Music Awards 2021 for ‘Best Electronic Album’ and Kraumur Award for ‘Best Album’, besides collecting additional international nominations. Ultraflex places equal value on sounds, lyrics and visual representation – music videos or experimental films are made to every single song.
Ultraflex’s sound is inspired by the disco, italo and funk of the 80’s, blending it with new-age sensibilities, unexpected jazz chords and melodic twists. The result is a catchy, contemporary whirlwind of dance floor weirdness, nodding to their ancestors in the historical lineage of spectacular electronic music. The duo’s material is simultaneously kitsch and conceptual, filtered through contemporary pop culture. Ultraflex creates their own brand new lotion carefully tailored to your needs.
JayWood – the moniker of Winnipeg musician & songwriter Jeremy Haywood-Smith – presents a new single/video, “Thank You,” from his forthcoming album, Slingshot, out July 15th on Captured Tracks. The album’s penultimate track, “Thank You” was co-produced with Jacob Portrait of Unknown Mortal Orchestra & Blouse and features string arrangements by Johan Lenox. The song brings JayWood’s sound full circle, offering something reminiscent of Haywood-Smith’s earliest recordings while flaunting that “the best is yet to come.” “‘Thank You’ is a song that’s dedicated to the folks that aren’t really in my life anymore, but more importantly it’s for my mom who passed away back in 2019.” says Haywood-Smith. “I feel like this song kinda wrote itself, it felt so easy to put together because I knew the core of what I was trying to get across. The demo for this song felt super strong but after Jake and I spent some time expanding a few ideas, the song really blossomed into something I couldn’t ever imagine.”
The charming accompanying video, directed by Chantel Simpson, shows Haywood-Smith passing out flowers across Harlem.
The narrative for Slingshot takes place in the span of one day. From the first track to the last track, JayWood takes you on a journey that touches on themes of childhood, religion, and identity. While writing and recording the album, Haywood-Smith put together a complex “script” mapping out all of the plot points, environments, characters that make up this surreal version of his real life. Musically, Haywood-Smith wrote and performed a bulk of the track’s instrumentations, but the LP has notable appearances from Canadian contemporaries Ami Cheon and McKinley Dixon, and fellow Manitoban musician Kayla Fernandes who fronts the doom-metal band Vagina Witchcraft. Despite the culturally homogenous nature of his hometown, Haywood-Smith takes inspiration from a wide range of Black performers and artists working in all genres and eras. “This album felt like I was making something that I would want my younger self to hear.”
Born and raised in the Canadian prairies, JayWood has captured Haywood-Smith’s journey of self-discovery and heartache through unique songwriting since 2015. After the loss of his mother in 2019 and a global standstill with multiple social crises throughout 2020, Haywood-Smith yearned for forward momentum. “The idea of looking back to go forward became a really big thing for me—hence the title, ‘Slingshot,’” Haywood-Smith explains. Feeling disconnected from his past and ancestry after the death of a parent, Haywood-Smith made a conscious effort to better understand his identity and unique Black experience living in the predominantly white province of Manitoba. Slingshot is a self-portrait of JayWood at his surface and his depths, merging fantasy scenarios, personal anecdotes, and infectious pop and dance instrumentals.
I scored this lovely and bargain-priced (twenty bucks!) mini-set of five classic albums by bossa nova queen Astrud Gilberto while on a late winter trip to California. The set covers records released by Gilberto (Yes, the first wife of Brazilian composer João Gilberto and stepmother to Bebel Gilberto.) from 1965 to 1969. In particular, they are her first (The Astrud Gilberto Album – 1965), third (Look to the Rainbow – 1966), fourth (A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness – 1966), sixth (Windy – 1968), and seventh (I Haven’t Got Anything Better to Do – 1969) records, and all of them are delightful.
The first album pairs her with the legendary Antonio Carlos Jobim, who wrote her famous hit “The Girl from Ipanema.” Like that song (which is not on this record, but rather on the other classic Getz / Gilberto), this album is an instant mood-changer. Starting with “Once I Loved,” and Gilberto singing that “love is the saddest thing when it goes away,” everything around you adapts to her voice. Her duo with Jobim on “Agua De Beber” is another song that brings a smile to your face, and Joao Donato‘s piano on it is a delight while Jobim’s subtle guitar strumming hits harder than most metal records. Gilberto sings about the nerves associated with new love on “And Roses and Roses” while snappy percussion sizzles and soothes behind her. “How Insensitive” is heart-breaking yet alluring. “Dindi” is a bossa nova standard, and Gilberto does a great version of it here.
Look to the Rainbow is full of stunning arrangements by Gil Evans. Opener “Berimbou” would fit into a 1960’s Bond film with its lush horn section and exotic strings. The horns on “Fervo” might inspire a wild party in the streets. “Maria Quiet” is, I’m sure, being played in a Tiki bar somewhere right now. “Bim Bom” is peppy and bouncy, sure to flood a dance floor in that Tiki bar. “El Preciso Aprender a Ser So (Learn to Live Alone)” is one of those songs Gilberto pulls off so well – longing and yearning mixed with Zen-like detachment.
A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness teams Gilberto with the Walter Wanderley Trio. Wanderley was an organ maestro who played on “The Girl from Ipanema,” and his band (Jose Marino – bass, Bobby Rosengarden – percussion, Claudio Slon – drums) are all sharp pros. The first two tracks are the double title tracks and both are bossa nova lounge classics. Wanderley’s organ riffs on “Nega” are the sounds of a hundred drive-in intermission countdowns, and Gilberto’s playful vocals on it are a delight. “So Nice (Summer Samba)” is another bossa nova classic, and it’s great to hear Wanderley strut his stuff on it while Rosengarden adds some spicy beats Any melancholy you might be feeling is wiped out by “Goodbye Sadness (Tristeza).” If the closer, “It’s a Lovely Day Today,” doesn’t cheer you up, I don’t know what will.
Windy was cut while Gilberto was living in Philadelphia and raising her and João’s son, Marcelo (with whom she shares vocals on “The Bare Necessities”). A lot of the songs are the album are big and bold, suitable for a Las Vegas nightclub or your party’s hi-fi. Opening track “Dreamy” is a perfect example with its lively brass section. “Never My Love” exudes soft 1960s psychedelia. She nails the title track (a cover of the classic hit by The Association), taking on the identity of the mysterious, playful woman as her own. Her cover of The Beatles‘ “In My Life” is also lovely.
According to the liner notes, Gilberto calls I Haven’t Got Anything Better to Do her “fireplace album.” She wanted to make a record that moved away from the aggressive sounds dominating the 1969 airwaves and could be listened to while curled up next to a fire. She did it. “He’s got a problem if he thinks I need him,” she sings on the opening title track. She had divorced João by this point, so you can’t help imagining her singing that in his direction. The soft, subtle horns on “Wailing of the Willow” mix perfectly with Gilberto’s haunting voice. “The Sea Is My Soil (I Remember When)” again makes you wonder why Gilberto never sang the theme to a Bond film. Everyone can relate to “World Stop Turning” at one point or another as Gilberto wishes time would stop so she could stay in bed with her husband just a bit longer.
It’s a wonderful collection, and a great way to be introduced to her music and bossa nova.
Recorded in 2019, Live at Freak Valleyby King Buffalo is a well-mastered and engineered document of a powerful set at that year’s Freak Valley Festival. It’s a great introduction to King Buffalo’s live sound if you’ve never heard it before and will make you want to seek them out at the nearest venue as soon as possible.
“Sun Shivers” sets off the show by launching us away from Earth’s gravity and into the endless sea of stars leading to the sun and beyond. They waste no time and get right to the cosmic riffs. “Longing to Be the Mountain” is a reference to a Chinese story about a stonecutter working on a mountain who desires to become the grand mountain that seems to be above all people, things, and concerns. He’s granted his wish but soon feels a tapping at his base. He looks down to see another stonecutter there chipping away at him. The stonecutter was caught by his own ego and delusions The song is a powerful as the lesson.
“Every day is the same,” they sing on “Repeater,” a fourteen-minute mind-melting experience that covers both existential ennui and Zen presence. By the time you get to “Orion” (“Can you hear me through the smoke and the haze?”), it feels like you’re drifting past his belt of stars. It’s a stunning track that must’ve been quite an experience for the lucky Freak Valley attendees.
“Kerosene” twists and turns around itself like some kind of heavy metal Escher drawing. They mention that A Place to Bury Strangers is up after them (which you can see here) before they get to the closer, “Eye of the Storm.” It’s a great closer that bridges the gap between stoner rock and desert rock for over ten glorious minutes. They encourage us to embrace the void without fear, for the eye of the storm is often the safest place.
If you’re looking for a good way to start off your trippy, heavy space rock record, why not do it with a song called “Blast Off?” That’s what Psychlona does on their cool Venus Skytripalbum.
The opening track builds with guitar notes sounding like a countdown clock that blend into actual rocket launch countdown recordings and rocket fuel-hot riffs and drum hits. The band’s love of Black Sabbathis evident from the opening riffs of “10,000 Volts,” which hits as hard as its namesake one moment and lulls you into a dreamy headspace the next as they sing about voices in their heads confusing their souls. “Blow” adds stadium rock riffs to the mix.
“Star” punches the accelerator the band’s starship to the floor and plunges us straight toward a red dwarf about to go nova. “Edge of the Universe” practically takes you there. You can probably guess the inspiration behind “Resin,” and it’s as trippy as you hope it will be. The reverb-laden vocals, the echoing guitars, and the cool yet heavy drums all combine to make a satisfying blend.
“Tijuana” seems to be a story about the band encountering dangerous women, dangerous drinks, and other dangerous substances and people while on a trip south of the U.S. border. The whole thing sizzles like an annoyed rattlesnake on a hot rock. The album closes with “The Owl,” a grand, thundering piece that casts a bird of prey’s shadow over you and almost makes you quiver like a mouse in an open field.
This is a cool record, and I hope Psychlona gets us more new music soon. I’d happily go on another sky trip with them. How about Saturn next time, lads?
Keep your mind open.
[Blast over to the subscription box while you’re here.]
King Gizard and the Lizard Wizard are one of the few bands out there who could start off an album with a song that’s over eighteen minutes long and everyone would think that’s a perfectly normal thing to do. Their new record, Omnium Gatherum, does just that with “The Dripping Tap.”
The album almost sounds like a greatest hits record, as KGATLW move back and forth between genres, time signatures, tuning preferences, and distortion levels. “The Dripping Tap” is a wild psychedelic freak-out, the kind that first got the band noticed just a decade or so ago (although it seems longer due to the massive output the band has generated in such a short time). “Magenta Mountain” starts off with soothing keyboard tones and then drops in slick beats that are perfect for a stroll or cruising on a Jet-Ski.
The funky bass on “Kepler-22b” takes you into outer space and encourages you to have a good time there (as do the lyrics). “Gaia” takes us back to Earth with re-entry burn riffs. Then, just to confuse ads, they drops “Ambergris,” a bedroom slow-jam that would fit on a Thundercat record. “Sadie Sorceress,” believe it or not, is a rap track – and it works.
“Evilest Man” is electro krautrock mixed with roaring riffs and smashing cymbals that sounds like something they accidentally left off Nonagon Infinity. “The Garden Goblin” is a fun, bouncy track that could’ve been listed on Fishing for Fishies, as could “Persistence.” “The Grim Reaper” is another hip hop track, complete with trippy flute loops.
“Presumptuous” bounces with Outkast-like pep. “Predator X” is a return to hard-hitting thrash metal, countered nicely by the trippy “Red Smoke” and “Candles,” which literally has the band singing, “Wheee!” at one point. The album closes with an instrumental – “The Funeral,” an interesting name choice for the final track, and an interesting choice to close the record with a track that only has vocal sounds and no lyrics.
Omnium Gatherum is a great place to jump on the Gizzard Train if you’re new to the band. It showcases so many styles they can play, and play well, that you’re sure to like at least a few things here.
Brooklyn native Johnny Kelly and NJ guitarist Dan Lorenzo have both played in more than a handful of bands.
Lorenzo was the founding member of both Hades and Non-Fiction and most recently Vessel Of Light and Cassius King. He even wrote the music with Bobby Blitz‘ first foray outside of Overkill in 2007 with The Cursed.
Kelly first came into prominence with Type O Negative and has also sat behind the kit for Danzig for nearly two decades. Kelly has also performed with BlackLabel Society, and currently Quiet Riot and Silvertomb.
Before now the two have never recorded anything together. “I honestly don’t remember how I first got in contact with Johnny“, Lorenzo stated. “I know we’ve had some email contact together for a while, and I remember originally being flattered that Johnny even knew who I was.”
Kelly stated, “I liked the riffs that Dan sent me and it’s a great opportunity to get to play with different people.” When Kelly was asked what he brings to the table for PATRIARCHS IN BLACK he came back with, ” I’m not really sure. I consider myself to be an average drummer at best. It must be my charming personality!”
The duo have named this project PATRIARCHS IN BLACK. Lorenzo wrote the music and plays guitar, Kelly is behind the kit.
PATRIARCHS IN BLACK will have multiple vocalists. Karl Agell ( Corrosion of Conformity Blind), Dewey Bragg ( Kill Devil Hill ) Jimmy Gnecco ( OURS) and John Kosco (Dropbox) have each sang a song. When pressed for a description of how the music sounds Kelly said, “All roads lead to Black Sabbath!”.
Germany’s MDD Records will release PATRIARCHS IN BLACK debut release Reach For The Scars on July 1st.
The new single “Demon of Regret” from PATRIARCHS IN BLACK is available NOW!
Fort Wayne was the place to be on May 10, 2022 if you were a fan of Primus, Battles, or Rush. No, Rush wasn’t playing, but Primus, apart from playing a full set of their music, played Rush’s A Farewell to Kings in its entirety as a second set.
There was a big crowd, as it was the first time Primus or Battles playing in Ft. Wayne, and it was great to see young and older fans alike there to see the show. Battles were first up and the two gentlemen put on a math rock clinic for their set. Ian Williams doubled on synths and guitars and John Stanier, one of my favorite drummers of all time from his work in Helmet, wowed the crowd, and I lost count of how many time signatures they played in during their set.
Battles dazzling everyone with more rhythms than we could almost handle.
Primus, who’d held a Q&A with VIP fans earlier, came out next and got everyone fired up right away with “Those Damned Blue Collar Tweekers.” They then ripped through a set of classics that included “The Toys Go Winding Down” and a live version of “Mr. Krinkle” that sounded so good it was like being in the studio with them. They also played their newest single, “Conspiranoia,” which is delightfully weird and psychedelic.
Primus and blue collar tweekers ruling the town.Conspiranoia!
After a brief break, they came back with the Rush set. Apart from them having to do one song as an instrumental due to frontman Les Claypool having a bit of a scratchy voice (and wanting to save it for his vocals during the encore), they pulled off A Farewell to Kings without a hitch.
A king’s crown for them and us.
As if two sets weren’t enough, Primus then came back for a four-song encore that included “My Name Is Mud” (which hits even harder than an aluminum baseball bat live) and “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver.”
It was a good show. It’s sometimes easy to get lost in Primus’ weirdness and lose sense of how good they can play. A live set by them is an instant reminder of that.
Congratulations to the young man who scored this set list. Thanks for letting me take a photo of it!VIP swag! A tumbler / thermos and a signed VIP-exclusive poster!
