Monthly Archives: May 2015

When Danish indie-rockers Mew released their long-awaited sixth album at the end of April many fans were unsure of what to expect. Although a return from a six-year hiatus can be difficult, with their progressive new album and a well-received set at SXSW, Mew has proven they’re back with a vengeance. 

“+- (as in “plus minus”), released on April 28, 2015 in North America, features the band’s original line up—Jonas Bjerre (vocals), Bo Madsen (guitar), Johan Wohlert (bass), and Silas Utke Graae Jorgensen (drums). With this new release, Mew continues its penchant for enigmatic album titles. Their previous outing in 2009, No More Stories Are Told Today, I’m Sorry They Washed Away//No More Stories, The World is Grey, I’m Tired, Let’s Wash Away, reveled in ambition.

The new music on ” +- ” soars. It’s alive, it’s vibrant and spacious. Its skewed pop sensibilities coupled with an ever-expansive musical backdrop denotes the extremities of Mew’s creative DNA, showing once more a band treading its own unique path. The album was recorded in Copenhagen, produced by Grammy-nominated Michael Beinhorn (Hole, Soundgarden, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Violent Femmes) and Mew with mixing duties undertaken by Rich Costey. “+- ” also features an appearance from Bloc Party guitarist Russell Lissack on “My Complications,” a song he co-wrote that came to fruition having met Mew on a U.S. tour some years ago.

Read More »

Though his résumé holds assorted accomplishments, Roger O’Donnell is best known as keyboardist for The Cure. Along with a series of solo albums, Julia Kent is a cellist noted for her contribution to Antony and the Johnsons. Love and Other Tragedies depicts their deepening creative partnership; beautiful but never syrupy and emotionally resonant without succumbing to the overwrought, aficionados of top-flight instrumentalism should take note, particularly partisans of chamber classical. It’s available digitally May 29th and on vinyl June 26th via 99X/10.

Roger O’Donnell’s reputation might rest upon his role in a true juggernaut of Alt-Goth, but he’s been on the scene since ’76, his first paying gig backing up the God of Hellfire himself Arthur Brown. Subsequently, he became a touring member of Thompson Twins, The Psychedelic Furs, and Berlin; a more ‘80s-drenched trifecta is frankly difficult to imagine. O’Donnell’s initial involvement with The Cure was also in the performance capacity; he joined in ’87 for the Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me road trip and stuck around for the recording of ‘89’s Disintegration and a whole lot more.

Vancouver BC-born and NYC-based Julia Kent may not brandish as high a profile as O’Donnell, but past collaborations distinguish her as a veteran; before lending her cello to Antony and the Johnsons’ 2005 Mercury Prize-winning I Am a Bird Now and it’s ’09 follow-up The Crying Light, she was a charter member of dark-hued cello-driven rock act Rasputina, her talents figuring in their two ‘90s efforts for Columbia.

Over the past decade O’Donnell and Kent have largely been busy with solo work. He’s released a string of discs first through Great Society and then 99X/10, the imprint he founded with longtime partner and collaborator Erin Lang; they include ’06’s Moog-focused The Truth in Me and ‘10’s Piano Formations. Issuing her solo debut Delay in ’07 on Shayo, Kent has completed three albums since, most recently ‘13’s Character on The Leaf Label.

Read More »

Ronnie Lane is a hardly a household name, but he is one of my all-time favorite rockers. Whether with the Small Faces, the large Faces, or his own band Slim Chance, Lane’s lovely and wistful voice was always a pleasure, whether he was singing sublime ballads like The Faces’ “Debris” or “Oh La La” or knocking off a hard rocker like the hilarious Faces tune “You’re So Rude.” The world didn’t know what it lost when Lane died at 51 after suffering for 21 years from multiple sclerosis. But I can tell you what it lost; a soulful and sweet soul whose bass work and vocals had an integral impact on not just one, but two great rock’n’roll bands.

Lane was a frequent collaborator with the likes of Pete Townshend, Steve Marriott, and Ronnie Wood (the two of them recorded the soundtrack to the 1972 Canadian film Mahoney’s Last Stand, and it’s a tremendous series of rave-ups despite its almost total lack of vocals). He recorded four LPs between 1970 and 1977 with Townshend, but three of them are hard-to-find tributes to their spiritual mentor Meher Baba, who lent his name to the great “Baba O’Riley.” Their fourth collaboration was Rough Mix, which was released in 1977 and featured an all-star cast that included Eric Clapton, John Entwistle, Ian Stewart, Charlie Watts, King Crimson’s Boz Burrell, the ubiquitous John “Rabbit Bundrick, and Medicine Head’s Peter Hope Evans. Why, even Townshend’s father-in-law, the noted British TV and movie soundtrack composer Edwin Astley, makes an appearance. Sly Stone is right; this one’s a family affair.

Lane and Townshend eschew rock for the most part, opting instead to mine the folk-rock vein, and it works. Lane wanted to collaborate on songs with Townshend but Townshend declined, and this collection of songs by two separate songwriters has a disparate feel, which is another way of saying it’s stylistically all over the map. But what holds it together is the passion both men pour into the songs, which stray from pure folk ballads to a pair of rave-ups to a handful of songs that defy easy definition, but show that both men showed up at the sessions—this despite the fact that Lane had just discovered he was ill—at the top of their game. No throwaways, in other words, or songs they didn’t think were good enough for their primary bands—they came to record great music, not just fuck around and jam.

Read More »

The UK post-punk impulse was a sizeable one, its prolificacy ranging from cornerstone acts to DIY obscurities. Landing somewhere in the middle is The Mothmen, their 1981 LP Pay Attention! holding the distinction of being the second entry in the discography of Adrian Sherwood’s On-U Sound label. Upon release it failed to find an audience and for years has basically been a footnote to a handful of larger success stories. In a classy move On-U Sound is giving the record a welcome vinyl reissue with bonus tracks on the download; it’s available May 29th.

In the realms of reissuedom can be found a steady stream of uninspiring and occasionally downright dubious choices, but when underappreciated, totally scarce and frequently pricey items are granted new life the endeavor is largely vindicated. Of course, proper credit should be given to the individuals with the good taste and foresight to have documented said recordings in the first place; in the case of Pay Attention! that someone is Adrian Sherwood.

A key architect in late-20th century music, Sherwood’s early productivity is nicely detailed on Sherwood at the Controls, Volume 1: 1979-1984 as recently compiled by On-U Sound, the long-extant label initially conceived by the artist to catalog his work as a producer. Amongst the names corralled by the 2LP are Maximum Joy, The Fall, The Slits, Shriekback, Mark Stewart and the Mafia, Annie Anxiety, Prince Far I, and African Head Charge.

A major aspect in Sherwood’s method was collaboration, often with musicians of Jamaican descent, and a main ingredient in his sonic recipe was the boundary pushing echo-sponginess of prime dub. The inaugural On-U Sound release (On-U LP 01) is the self-titled 1981 debut from The New Age Steppers; produced by Sherwood and featuring contributions from Bruce Smith and Mark Stewart of The Pop Group, Viv Albertine and Ari-Up of The Slits, Vicky Aspinall of The Raincoats, Vivien Goldman, and Steve Beresford, it fits exceedingly well into On-U Sound’s MO.

Read More »

Press Play is our Monday recap (on Tuesday this week) of the new tracks received last week—provided here to inform your next trip to your local indie record store. Click, preview, download, purchase.

KOPECKY – Talk To Me
Gem And Eye – Roaring Twenties
Robbie Flanagan – The City Who Forgot
Secret Friend – Blue Sky
CULTFEVER – Youth
LOVESKILLS – READY 2 WEAR
Code Pie – Rockets
C A R A L I S – Be Automatic
Oulipo – Blue Flames
Phantoms – Voyeur feat. Nicholas Braun

TVD SINGLE OF THE WEEK:
Storms – Girl

Gene Serene – Singularity
S2V – Spring Vibes
Instant Empire – Mind The Gap
Kevin Hunter – Fire Burning
CYBERPUNKERS – Sick Tracks
Br Malie – Act Loco (Feat. Chrysace)
Falling Stacks – No Stops
Molly Moore – Natural Disaster (Win & Woo Remix)
Supastition – Flawless
RiFF RAFF x Yung Nation X Crichy Crich – Molly On My Chest (Remix)

3 more FREE TRACKS on side B!

Read More »

“My home was filled with classical Indian Carnatic tunes growing up; my mom would cook curry and sing along passionately.”

“I love-hated it because while I barely understood the words, the intonation was catchy and mesmerizing and invaded my mind at a very young age, filling me with meditative mantras. But being a typical little girl, the first tape I bought was the Spice Girls’ Spice. I knew every word of every song because I looked up the lyrics on some Geocities website and printed them out and I really really really wanna zig-a-zig ahh.

Middle school was a great time for music—No Doubt, Snoop Dogg, Weezer, TLC—pop music was and still is a great inspiration to me. I love music that is accessible and catchy and I try to pump some of these pop vibes into my own Bob and Martha melodies.

Read More »