The past several weeks have seen the release of many great new tracks, from artists both known and loved, and new. Here are a few to get started on, with more to follow.
Mr. Twin Sister, “Jaipur” (Self-Released)
Up first, New York’s Mr. Twin Sister, who return with, “Jaipur”, their first new music since 2016 and our favorite – if we must choose – of three (!) new tracks to emerge over this past summer (“Power of Two” and “Echo Arms” the others). “Jaipur” is a beguiling reentry, retaining the suave r&b/‘baby-making music’ sound of 2014’s self-titled effort, all swelling strings and lush vocals – but the storm here feels anything but quiet. All that smooth is jarred by a sped up Bollywood tempo and horn blasts, reflecting a more jittery, self-conscious take on love – anxiously looking for it, while simultaneously fearing that, once found, you’ll just fuck it up and run away, disappointing both the other and yourself.
It’s unclear whether any of these new tracks will be included as part of a forthcoming long-player, but take your chance to hear them live on the band’s upcoming tour, beginning October 18 in Allston, MA.
Rat Columns, “Sometimes We’re Friends” (Slumberland)
Another welcome return, this one courtesy of Rat Columns, the recording project revolving around David West, who we’ve previously gushed over thanks to their sublime 2017 album, Candle Power.
“Sometimes We’re Friends” is released as part of a year-long tribute in honor of Slumberland Records’ 30th anniversary. Riding in on a lovely jangle, the track captures the same effortless charm as found on the album, with the kind of road-weary romanticism of bands like The Go-Betweens, Prefab Sprout and the Blue Nile married to an early Cure style guitar chug, uncoiling into an extended and repeated chorus. It’s fantastic, and hopefully means there’s a new full-length coming soon.
Papercuts, “Laughing Man” (Slumberland)
San Francisco’s Jason Quever returns with Papercuts, bringing the kind of vertiginous psych/dream pop that made us believers on 2009’s You Can Have What You Want. “Laughing Man” was the first of the new tracks we heard (followed closely by “Sing to Me Candy”), and it grabbed us immediately with it’s “Be My Baby”ish beat and woozy harmonies. Sweetly melancholy vocals describing someone “staring into space”, gripped by a memory they “can’t face”, before requesting we be upstanding not for the mayor of simpleton, but the laughing man.
The track will appear on Papercuts’ forthcoming new album, Parallel Universe Blues, due October 19 on Slumberland.
Molly Nilsson, “Slice of Lemon” (Dark Skies Association; Night School)
Another returning fave – this time, Molly Nilsson shares “Slice of Lemon” from her forthcoming full-length, 2020 (that’s the lyric video, above). It’s another world-beating slice (sorry) of new wave-flecked sophistipop. Riding a woozy synth and laconic beat, Nilsson’s lyrical focus feels placed on the beginning and end of a relationship, viewed through the eyes and ice of the narrator and the other – there’s a pang of wistfulness, but without regret. The track feels simultaneously new and like the song that could have soundtracked an alternate version of the denouement to “Sixteen Candles”, in which Sam eats the birthday cake alone, bummed it didn’t work out with Jake, but ultimately ok with it.
2020 is released November 2 on the ever-amazing Night School Records and Nilsson’s own Dark Skies Association imprint. Follow along on fbook, where you can find Nilsson’s upcoming tour dates in the EU and North America.
Lithics, “Photograph, You of” (Thrilling Living)
Back in May, Portland, OR’s Lithics put out one of our favorite records of the year in the form of Excuse Generator. Last month, the band released a one-off single on the Oakland-based Thrilling Living label, and it’s every bit as vitally abrasive. The a-side is a fantastic continuation of Excuse Generator’s tetchy and tuneful post-punk, sneeringly cool vocals playing off the rambling rhythm and jagged one-two guitar lines. B-side, “Lost Signal” brings a kind of Devo meets Television vibe sure to invoke full body shakealongs on the dance floor. One of the best band’s going right now, no doubt.
Grab a copy of the single here. Excuse Generator is out now, on Kill Rock Stars.
Cover art for Germ House/Far Corners split cassette.
Jeckyl/Hyde, Bowie/Ziggy, Urkel/Urquelle – history is littered with famed alter egos. To this storied list, add Rhode Island-based bands Germ House and Far Corners, musical alter egos conjoined via frontman/guitarist Justin Hubbard.
The bands’ split cassette, released in June on the New York-based Fuzzy Warbles label, is an excellent showcase for Hubbard’s (together, in Far Corners, with co-conspirators Joe Corluka and Dave Dougan) musical stylings. Side Germ House (a project described as both a solo project and “partially fledged live rock outfit”) is an artful indie pop collage recalling, at times, Beck and Devo with its shards of jangle, twitchy post-punk/new wave, garage, and 70s rock (personal fave, “Inside the Room”). Side Far Corners feels an overall heavier and headier endeavor, upping the fuzz and folding in psych, punk/hc and noise (personal fave, “Gold Choice”). Excellent.
Grab a copy of the split cassette here, and catch Germ House live at one or more upcoming dates, which you can find on fbook.
Terry is a name whose Nordic meaning is, apparently, ‘like Thor’. Terry is a soft material used to make luxurious towels and bathrobes.Terry is also (and most importantly) a Melbourne-based quartet comprised of musicians from a veritable smorgasbord of excellent Australian indie groups including UV Race, Total Control, Dick Diver and Primo! (and those are just the ones I already know and like – I’ve got to get busy listening to the rest). Following their early EPs and a duo of excellent albums (2016’s Terry HQ and last year’s Remember Terry), the band return with the fantastic, I’m Terry.
I’m Terry retains many hallmarks of the band’s sound – interchanged and/or tandem vocals (one of the men sounds an awful lot like Robyn Hitchcock to me, but forgive me, dear reader, for I know not whether tis Zephyr Pavey or Al Montfort); a Gun Club-esque perversion of country slide – further enhanced and dynamic than on prior releases. The languid cool veneer is also present, as is the band’s knack for wry, observational lyrics – I was reminded of early Go-Go’s tracks like “This Town” for the ability to match this type of language with a kind of gritty pop (see also bands like The Vaselines and The Fall).
This detachment works particularly well when cracks start to form and the band allows itself to indulge in the sneer underneath, as in the full scale rockouts of closer, “For the Field”, and the conclusions to “Bureau” and ‘needs a dance to go along with it’ “The Whip” (the former ultimately cascading into a blissful fade out). Highlights are many, and include the Ballboy-like stream of consciousness vocals on “Carpe Diem”, which sounds like a kind of warped lullaby, and the aforementioned pogofest that is “The Whip” (just try getting that ‘na-na’ chorus out of your head anytime soon). My personal favorite flits, usually alighting upon the hypnotic “Under Reign”, with its sly bassline amplifying the “reek of reason”; calm recitations emboldened by cinematic synthesizer, creaking under the weight of a crazed saxophone solo. Brilliant.
I’m Terry is released August 31, courtesy of the phenomenal Upset the Rhythm label (seriously, in what world does one roster include Terry, Primo!, The Green Child, Gen Pop, Vexx, Sauna Youth, Vital Idles, The World…crazy). Surveil (in a supportive way) Terry’s online movements on instagram and/or the twitt. The band’s upcoming tour dates in the UK and Ireland can be found here.
The venerable Kill Rock Stars label recently announced the addition to its roster of PDX-based quartet, Lithics. The band’s forthcoming new album bears the mental-image inducing title of Mating Surfaces, and they’ve shared lead track, “Excuse Generator” (listen below).
The track is a delicious soft-serve swirl of punkier, art-pop new wave and post-punk, seamlessly blending the insouciance of the former with the jittery agitation of the latter. Kicking off along a “Teenage Lobotomy” intro, vocalist Aubrey Hornor recalls Patty Donahue if she fronted Bush Tetras or a more restive XTC. This push-pull of the melodious and the discordant makes for an intriguing whole, placing them amongst the best of the current crop of bands that includes Omni and Shopping.
Mating Surfaces is due May 25 from KRS, pre-orders up here – get psyched for release day. Lithics are also going on a US tour starting later this month, supporting aforementioned tgh faves Shopping on the west coast, followed by a swing through the midwest and east coast supporting Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks. You can also follow the band on instagram.
Site fave Preoccupations recently announced that their new full-length – cleverly titled New Material – will release March 23, courtesy of Jagjaguwar and Flemish Eye (in Canada). To tide us over until then, the band have also shared the Nathan David Smith-produced video (below) for new track, “Espionage”, which incorporates the album’s artwork, by Calgary-based designer Marc Rimmer.
The track itself feels typically unsettled, structurally calling to this mind a kind of industrial-edged Heaven 17. The lyrics feel desolate (singer Matt Flegel has described the album as an “ode to depression and self-sabotage”), with a defiant call and response between lead and backing vocals rising to a persistent call for “change”. Whether this defiance brings catharsis or is a mere kick out against the pricks is open for debate.
You can pre-order New Materialnow, and make sure to catch Preoccupations on one of their forthcoming tour dates.
First things first: I count myself a massive Cocteau Twins fan. So much so that when I read/hear bands compared sonically or otherwise with them, it’s met with a healthy skepticism. Few, either during the contemporaneous rise of dream pop and shoegaze or during their more recent revivals, seem to match the visceral thrill, the desolate euphoria, gleaned from the original. While I grew to like many of these bands over time it was in spite of, rather than due to, their supposed level of “Cocteausiness”.
Which leads me to Britain, the duo of Joey Cobb and Katie Drew that I recently stumbled across (thanks to an email blast from the good folks over at Heavenly). They come bearing Cocteau comparisons – and it’s easy enough to see why on first listen to the demo for track, “Day by Day”: the glistening guitar cascades, crisp drum machine patter, even an ending that sounds as though the song’s been suddenly unplugged – it’s all there. Yet, in spite of my decidedly caveat emptor approach to such things, I was immediately swept up and carried off by “Day by Day”.
Much of this is down to Drew’s vocal performance, which matches not only the wispy end of Elizabeth Fraser’s delivery but, more importantly, its soulfulness. So, yes, it does sound like the Cocteaus – but “Day by Day” is no mere pastiche. The light and dark in the track’s woozy melody gives a feel like the reveal of sun through a slowly lifting fog. It’s also incredibly fully-formed for a ‘demo’ – so hopefully, if included on their forthcoming debut, it won’t be messed with. A second track, “Tried to Call”, can be heard by watching their “Stay Fresh” session over at theskinny. Building from a similar 4AD building block, “Tried to Call” ratchets up the psych in a way that reminds of Lost Souls-era Doves (a band Britain name check as an influence in the corresponding interview).
Per the bio on fbook and the twitt, Britain are currently working on their debut, which will be released on Heavenly. Stay tuned, and catch them out on tour with Jane Weaver this autumn in the UK (dates here).
STREAM “The Damned Thing”, the new @writhingsquares single off “Mythology” ~ the epic 8-minute tune is replete with gnarly sax, flanger & flute & is the final single out before the APRIL 26th release date! PREORDER yours today!
Happy birthday to Sarah Cracknell. Here are Saint Etienne performing You're in a Bad Way at Glastonbury in 1994. The full song is at https://youtu.be/BGBnbIaYHFI
It’s time to start babbling with Parsnip, their incredible new single (out today) is packed with Kinks-ian panache and wondrous deceptive wordplay, beyond great:
First things first: I count myself a massive Cocteau Twins fan. So much so that when I read/hear bands compared sonically or otherwise with them, it’s met with a healthy skepticism. Few, either during the contemporaneous rise of dream pop and shoegaze or during their more recent revivals, seem to match the visceral thrill, the desolate euphoria, gleaned from the original. While I grew to like many of these bands over time it was in spite of, rather than due to, their supposed level of “Cocteausiness”.
