In a statement, Carney explained ‘break the ground’ is “a song about being in denial when things are falling apart. Lyrically, I kind of wanted the song to feel like some kind of uncomfortable dreamlike world, the type where you feel heavy and when you run, your legs barely move and the killer is catching up, but in this case you’re pretending like you can’t even see them.”
The Goon Sax have today released the deluxe digital edition of their most recent LP, Mirror II. It features four previously unreleased songs, including two album outtakes – ‘We’re Just Talking’ and ‘Spike Fence’ – a demo of ‘In the Stone’, and a cover of Len’s 1999 hit ‘Steal My Sunshine’. Take a listen below.
Mirror II, the Goon Sax’s third album and Matador debut, came out last year. The Brisbane trio is currently on tour opening for Snail Mail, and will join Interpol and Spoon on their co-headlining Lights, Camera, Factions tour this fall. Check out our Artist Spotlight interview with Goon Sax.
“Growing up I was surrounded by visions of Nascar, rock’n’roll, and being the one who would change everything,” Cain explained in a statement. “They make you think it’s all achievable and that if nothing else, you should at least die trying. What they don’t tell you is that you need your neighbor more than your country needs you. I wrote this song as an expression of my frustration with all the things the ‘American Teenager’ is supposed to be but never had any real chance of becoming.”
Preacher’s Daughter is set to arrive on May 12. Along with the new track, Cain has today announced the Freezer Bride Tour, which kicks off on July 14 in Bloomington, Indiana. Tickets go on sale this Friday at 10am local time; find the list of dates below.
Jul 14 – Bloomington, IN – The Bishop
Jul 15 – Chicago, IL – Pitchfork Festival
Jul 18 – Detroit, MI – El Club
Jul 19 – Toronto, ON – Horseshoe
Jul 20 – Montreal, QC – Le Ritz PDB
Jul 22 – Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall
Jul 23 – Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brendas
Jul 24 – Washington, DC – Union Stage
Jul 27 – Richmond, VA – Richmond Music Hall
Jul 28 – Asheville, NC – The Grey Eagle
Jul 30 – Gainesville, FL – High Dive
Jul 31 – Tallahassee, FL – 926 Bar
Rachel Sermanni has announced a new EP titled Every Swimming Pool Runs to the Sea. The follow-up to 2021’s Swallow Me EP will be out on June 16. Today, the Scottish singer-songwriter has previewed it with the single ‘Aquarium Kisses’, which you can hear below.
“I woke from a dream where an old school friend had led me into a huge aquarium,” Sermanni recalled in a statement about the new song. “More like a building with glass, water, and tropical fish for walls. In the glow, we kissed. It was a lovely, playful, sensual dream. This is where the song begins. As is obvious. Each verse that follows is an ode to a past lover. The reasons I loved them, little moments and memories. It has a nostalgic feeling for me which then comes to the present moment with the chorus words (written by Richard Walters) where I hold the hand of my now love. I believe that the chorus and the presence of another’s hand in mine is more symbolic.”
Every Swimming Pool Runs to the Sea EP Cover Artwork:
Every Swimming Pool Runs to the Sea EP Tracklist:
1. Aquarium Kisses
2. Soak Me
3. Silk Dart
4. Every Swimming Pool Runs to the Sea
Art Moore, the new project from Taylor Vick of Boy Scouts and Ezra Furman collaborators Sam Durkes and Trevor Brooks, have announced their signing to ANTI- with the new single ‘Snowy’. Check it out below.
“We all met up at the studio, and it was never even like, ‘Let’s be a band’, that was never a thing,” Durkes explained in a statement. “It was more like, ‘Let’s write for movies and art projects’ — let’s think of a movie scene or a photograph or still image and see if we can write some shit around it to see if we can pitch it.”
“Four songs in, I think, after the first recording session, we realized it was going well, and it was pretty efficient,” Brooks added. “Making music with both Sam and Taylor has always been so easy. I record other artists, and it’s pretty rare to be so quickly on the same page with people. We don’t have to say much — we kind of get where each other is coming from. It happens way too easily.”
Commenting on ‘Snowy’, Vick said: “This song takes the perspective of a widow on a road trip, the thoughts they might have while traveling alone and having conversations as if they’re still around. ‘Snowy’ is that feeling that someone is right next to you, but you know they can’t be.”
Last year, Vick released her latest album as Boy Scouts, Wayfinder.
Jack White appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert last night (April 20), performing ‘What’s the Trick?’ from his new album Fear of the Dawn. He also sat down for an interview with Colbert, where he talked about his surprise wedding to Olivia Jean, making custom furniture, and a piece of advice he got from Prince. Check it out below.
Fear of the Dawn is the first of two LPs Jack White is putting out this year; Entering Heaven Alive comes out on July 22 via his own Third Man Records. The label is planning to release Prince’s shelved 1986 album Camille, though a release date has yet to be announced.
Moreish Idols, a five-piece hailing from a Cornish coastal town and now based in London, are the latest band to sign to Dan Carey’s Speedy Wunderground label. To mark the announcement, they’ve shared a new single called ‘Speedboat’, which you can check out below.
Talking about the new single, frontman Jude Lilley said:
When I was about 18 I stopped off in Venice with some friends after a festival. One hot afternoon in our grubby clothes, we managed to find a place doing pizza slices and beer for a couple of euros. Hidden away from the intimidatingly glamorous tourists we sat on a jetty and tucked into our newly purchased treats. As we were chatting away over our lunch, we were interrupted by a thumping kick drum echoing through the canal. The kick grew louder and louder until a white speedboat drifted at full speed into our view and pulled up to the jetty. EDM blasted from the boat, as a slick, well built man in wrap around shades and a red polo shirt inspected his vast pile of parcels. He bent down, grabbed a stack and hopped off the boat. After making the drop at the house behind us, he hopped back into the motor and shot off into the canals. That’s when I knew: I wanted to be a postman in Venice.
Carlos Truly the project of Ava Luna’s Carlos Hernandez, has shared a new single called ‘New Growth’. It’s the second offering from his upcoming album Not Mine, following lead cut ‘108th’. Listen below.
“To me this song sounds like turbulence vs calm, the tension between aspiration and frustration, knowing there’s so much to do but feeling stuck,” Hernandez explained in a statement. “Waiting and waiting, waiting and walking, looking inward, and finding a sort of battleground there. “Waiting on that new growth” – have you ever felt like you’re not in control of your own destiny? This is partially a quarantine song, but really I was thinking beyond that, like how can we challenge ourselves to stay active and alert, even when it’s hard, even when it’s exhausting. “If I put it into words like a ladder laid out, it’ll come across in the recount” is just a fancy way of saying, keep writing, keep telling stories, keep reaching outwards!!”
Set during the Christmas of 1991, Pablo Larraín’s Spencer is less of a biopic and more of a character study that dives deep into the mindset of Princess Diana. Kristen Stewart gives a memorable performance as the tormented Diana, feeling trapped in her role within the royal family, in her marriage, the confines of the royal estate, the clothes she’s told to wear, and sometimes even in her role as a mother. Over the festive season, Diana deals with the judgement of her husband’s family as, beyond the royal grounds, rumors swirl of divorce and infidelity.
Ripe with glamorous imagery, Spencer shows off the sparkling estate and contrasts it with the bleak, misty fields outside, as well as Diana’s dilapidated childhood home. Johnny Greenwood’s soundtrack makes certain cinematic moments stand out, like Diana’s desire to run across the damp lawns in her tailored clothes, or enduring a stiff dinner in the Queen’s presence while her husband looks at her coldly. Though the story takes place at Christmas, the events that unfold are far from festive. French cinematographer Claire Mathon does an excellent job of juxtaposing the pristine against the unpleasant, all while visualising Diana’s sense of unease and incongruity in her surroundings.
It doesn’t matter whether they call you a pop singer, an avant-garde polymath, or, god forbid, a post-punk band, nothing will bring you more acclaim than knowing your way around a melody. For Fontaines D.C., catchiness is often a form of subversion – take the title track from their sophomore LP, 2020’s A Hero’s Death, which is as sprightly as it is unnerving. On that album, the band managed to retain some of the raw, driving energy of their debut Dogrel while adding in more space and deepening their sound to fit its relentlessly brooding atmosphere. With their latest effort, Skinty Fia – an Irish expletive that translates to “the damnation of the deer” – the band takes this approach to the next level. The mood is more solemn and gothic than before, reaching for a pervasive melancholy where others might react with aggression – but it also embraces their melodic sensibilities in ways that were only hinted at by its predecessor, matching the maturity and nuance that has slowly seeped into the band’s music with a penchant for simplicity.
Crafting a good hook is different from knowing your way around it, which is what makes so many of the tracks on Skinty Fia so hypnotically engaging. A lot of it has to do with how Grian Chatten leans into certain syllables, something that’s always been a distinct part of his delivery but is more pronounced here than ever – hear the way he alternates between “I’ve been leaving it all/ I’ve been living it all” on ‘Big Shot’, not so much stressing the difference between the two as giving both statements equal weight, even if their meaning remains unclear. From a less experienced band, this might have come off as a tacky lyric, but Chatten’s captivating vocal presence, combined with the creeping undercurrent of the instrumental, renders it compelling. There’s a similar thing happening on ‘Roman Holiday’, a song about exploring London as an Irish ex-pat that sets reverberating guitars against syncopated drums: “Baby come on, get stoned, get stoned/ Get inside it, inside it, inside it, inside/ Get along, get along, get alone, get alone,” Chatten sings, and immediately the thrill of togetherness blurs into a strange shade of alienation. And then, on ‘How Cold Love Is’, the repetition of the title again has a numbing effect, which suits the song’s dreary psychedelia.
The album’s early singles stand out as some of its most infectious tracks, but hearing them in the context of the record highlights their emotional depth. ‘Jackie Down the Line’ presents an intimately detailed character study while contrasting a two-chord progression with some of the band’s most expansive production to date, which only accentuates the violent despondency of the lyrics. When Skinty Fia expresses a more overtly political character, it does so through a uniquely personal lens that feels all the more sincere – it’s a record about seeing the flawed nature of the things you love, where one’s fractured relationship with home, the self, and other people are all filtered through the same language. ‘I Love You’ is the purest distillation of these ideas, and as the penultimate track, it unearths the conflicts that have so far been observed with a cold distance. Even as it avoids any kind of resolution, it stands as the album’s most impactful song.
Some of the main takeaways from Skinty Fia might seem too predictable. Compared to A Hero’s Death, the band’s experimental tendencies, most evident in the industrial noise of the title track, seem more thoughtful and considered. As their third LP, it’s almost expected that it would draw a line from the romance and poetry of Dogrel to the dark surrealism of A Hero’s Death. Yet this evolution does nothing to detract from the band’s authenticity. If anything, this is an album that reflects the group’s present worlview without mythogogizing their rise to success in the way that its predecessor did. It’s elusive yet direct, bold yet understated. It takes its time; that old nervous urgency is still there, but they achieve more when they decide to pull back. ‘The Couple Across the Way’ is backed by a lone accordion as Chatten relays the arguments of a neighbouring couple, but as much as he removes himself from the picture, the song’s vulnerability speaks volumes. “The world has changed beyond our doorstep/ People talk and dress so strange,” he sings at one point. On Skinty Fia, that kind of strangeness is ever-present – and yet, with each weary, careful step, Fontaines D.C. make it feel familiar.
