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Naima Bock Announces Debut Album ‘Giant Palm’, Shares Video for New Song

Naima Bock has announced her debut album, Giant Palm, which will arrive on July 1 via Sub Pop/Memorials of Distinction. Today, the singer-songwriter has shared a video for the album’s title track, which follows the early singles ’30 Degrees’ and ‘Every Morning’. Check out the Max McLachlan-directed clip below and scroll down for the album’s cover artwork.

Talking about the new track, Bock explained in a press release:

Giant Palm was written collaboratively by myself and Joel Burton (who arranged and
produced the whole album), I wrote the vocal melody and lyrics and he wrote the
instrumentation. The recording process was limited (which I always find the most
creatively productive way to record) by what we had in Joel’s room and recorded
during the summer of 2020, resulting in mostly electronic instruments apart from the
acoustic guitar. The vocals were later recorded by my dad, Victor Bock. We named
the album after this song as it was the one that most reflected our collaboration as
musicians and the innocence and freedom that characterised the making of the
record.

Commenting on the video, Bock added: “He projected the contrast of elevation and submission that is present in the song into a physical visual format. I’ve struggled to express in writing the meaning of this song so I feel it is best to leave the listener to make of it what they will. It’s a deeply personal song which means it can be reflected in whichever way one feels they want it to be.”

Giant Palm Cover Artwork:

Naima Bock 2022 Tour Dates:

18 Apr – Porto, PT – Casa Da Musica %
19 Apr – Lisbon, PT – Capitolio %
21 Apr – Madrid, ES – Sala Mon %
22 Apr – Barcelona, ES – La 2 %
23 Apr – Lyon, FR – L’Epicerie Moderne %
25 Apr – Milano, IT – Santeria %
26 Apr – Zurich, CH – Mascotte %
27 Apr – Munich, DE – Ampere %
28 Apr – Cologne, DE – Stadtgarten %
29 Apr – Hamburg, DE – Nochtspeicher %
30 Apr – Berlin, DE – Lido %
2 May – Amsterdam, NL – Paradiso Noord %
4 May – London – Scala %
5 May – Brussels, BE – Botanique (Orangerie) %
6 May – Paris, FR – Cabaret Sauvage %
7 May – Lille, FR – Aeronef %
8 May – Nantes, FR – Le Lieu Unique %
11-14 May – Brighton – The Great Escape
21 May – Edinburgh – The Great Eastern Festival
23 May – London – The Lexington (headline)
28 May – Totnes – Sea Change Festival
17 Jun – Edinburgh – Hidden Door Festival
1 Jul – London – Rough Trade East (instore)
1-04 Sep – Dorset – End of the Road Festival
9-10 Sep – Vienna, AT – Waves Festival
15-17 Sep – Oslo, NO – by:Larm
20 Sep – Leipzig, DE – UT Connewitz ^
21 Sep – Hamburg, DE – RBF ^
22 Sep – Berlin, DE – Prachtwerk ^
23 Sep – Cologne, DE – Theater der Wohngemeinschaft ^
24 Sep – Munich, DE – Heppel & Ettlich ^
27 Sep – Nijmegen, NL – Doomrosje ^
29 Sep – Bruges, BE – Cactus ^
% w/ Rodrigo Amarante
^ w/ Dana Gavanski

Belle and Sebastian Share New Single ‘Young And Stupid’

Belle and Sebastian have shared ‘Young and Stupid’, the second single from their forthcoming LP A Bit of Previous. The track follows lead cut ‘Unnecessary Drama’. Check out a lyric video for it below.

The release of ‘Young and Stupid’ is accompanied by a quote from actor Jon Hamm. “In 2015 at Bonnaroo, Belle and Sebastian invited Zach Galifianakis and me up to the stage during their set to toss gummy bears in each other’s mouths,” he said. “Then Stuart [Murdoch] got into the fun and demanded a catch as well. It was dramatic, stupid, and done with style and grace. I know I can speak for Zach when I say ‘I want to thank them for their inclusion of us into their show.’ I know the audience was simply confused, but we were absolutely delighted.  Please enjoy this new album with a gummy bear of your choice, and think fondly of all of us.”

A Bit of Previous, the band’s first album since 2015’s Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance, is out May 6 on Matador. Belle and Sebastian recently released ‘If They’re Shooting At You’ in support of those affected by the conflict in Ukraine.

 

TRAAMS Announce New Album ‘Personal Best’, Share Video for New Song ‘The Light at Night’

TRAAMS have announced their new album, Personal Best, which is set for release on July 22 via Fat Cat Records. Today’s announcement comes with the release of the new single ‘The Light At Night’, which features Protomartyr’s Joe Casey comes with a video co-directed by Charlotte Gosch and Lee Kiernan of IDLES. Check it out and find the album’s cover art and tracklist below.

“’On The Light At Night’, we were very lucky to get to work with Joe Casey of Protomartyr,” frontman Stuart Hopkins said in a statement. “It goes without saying that we’re all massive fans of his band, we were lucky enough to tour together a few years ago and became friends. After trying and failing to lay down a verse I was happy with I tried my luck and messaged Joe. Like a true pro he had the takes recorded and back to us in a flash, he loves a deadline apparently.”

Casey commented: “Last year, like many people, I was doing absolutely nothing and desperately wanted to do anything. Luckily for me, that anything arrived in the form of a TRAAMS tune. Asking Stu for a little guidance after an initial “do whatever you want” he explicated on the songs origins and suggested I “rant like a televangelist”. Stu must be a keen student of my output. Anyway, I trundled out to Ypsilanti to Derek Stanton’s new home studio and dutifully laid down some primo ranting and yawps. What am I going on about on this one? Beats me. And I wrote it! I’m just happy to be using my (shockingly adenoidal) voice again after such a long hiatus and being a small part of whatever TRAAMS have cooking up.”

Personal Best marks TRAAMS’ third LP and their first in seven years, following 2015’s Modern Dancing. “A lot of this album is about recognising yourself,” Stu explained. “This record is about the little changes we make, and the milestones we achieve in that process. It’s not about big declarations of love or huge outpourings of grief,” he says. “It’s about the little personal realisations and victories that people have throughout their lives. Some of them are massive, some of them can be hard, and some are small and beautiful, but they all matter.”

Personal Best Cover Artwork:

Personal Best Tracklist:

1. Sirens
2. Dry
3. Breathe feat. Softlizard
4. The Light At Night [feat. Joe Casey]
5. Sleeper [feat. Soffie Viemose]
6. Shields
7. Hallie
8. Comedown feat. Softlizard

fanclubwallet Shares Video for New Single ‘Trying to Be Nice’

fanclubwallet has released ‘Trying to Be Nice’, the latest offering from her forthcoming debut LP You Have Got To Be Kidding Me – out May 20 via AWAL. The track follows previous singles ‘Gr8 Timing!’ and ‘That I Won’t Do’. Check out its music video below.

“’Trying to Be Nice’ was written over the course of a couple years,” Hannah Judge explained in a statement. “The first half of the song includes lyrics I wrote on the Greyhound to my hometown after deciding to move back home, and the second half was written a few years later in a studio in the woods. Both parts of the song were written at different times when I was feeling really unsure of myself. It’s all about wondering what people think of you and questioning what you think of yourself.”

Matilda Mann Unveils Video for New Song ‘Nice’

Matilda Mann has shared a new single, ‘Nice’, alongside an accompanying video directed by Camila Noriega. It follows the London songwriter’s recent track ‘Four Leaf Dream’. Listen to it below.

“‘Nice’ is my dating rule,” Mann said in a statement. “If I go on a date and the only word I can think to describe it is “nice”, it’s not worth another date. You’d never describe your best friends or your family as just “nice”. There needs to be a better first word that comes straight to mind.”

She added: “The music video was so fun to make, up in the desert in LA. We came up with all these date ideas where it’s going terribly, and it ends with me having had enough and walking off to play ‘Nice’ with my band.”

 

Launder Announces Debut Album, Shares New Songs

Launder, the project of LA-based musician John Cudlip, has announced his debut album: Happening lands on July 15 via Ghostly. Today, Launder has shared two songs from the LP, ‘Unwound’ and ‘Chipper’, which were co-written with DIIV members Zachary Cole Smith and Colin Caulfield. Check them out below.

Happening will follow Launder’s 2018 EP Pink Cloud. “I feel like I’ve evolved into a much more self-reliant writer compared to the EP and 7-inch releases but I couldn’t have made this record without the band,” Cudlip said in a statement. “The songs came to life in the rehearsal space with them, it was like a light switch went on.” Cudlip’s collaborators on the album include Chase Meier on bass, Bryan DeLeon on drums, and Nathan Hawelu on lead guitar, while Soko takes on lead vocals on ‘Become’.

Happening Cover Artwork:

Happening Tracklist:

1. Unwound
2. Intake
3. Blue Collar
4. On a Wire
5. Become [feat. Soko]
6. Beggar
7. Rust
8. Withdraw
9. Lockwood
10. Harbour Mouth
11. Chipper
12. Parking Lot
13. Lantern

Jamie xx Releases New Single ‘Let’s Do It Again’

Jamie xx has released a new song called ‘Let’s Do It Again’. It marks the producer’s first new single since 2020’s one-off track ‘Idontknow’. Give it a listen below.

I started making this tune last year, just as it felt like we might all be able to start doing the things we love again,” Jamie said in a press release. “I’m so happy to say ‘LET’S DO IT AGAIN’ is out today. And I can’t wait to play it for ya this summer!”

Jamie xx’s solo debut, In Colour, came out in 2015. More recently, he produced his xx bandmate Oliver Sim’s new songs ‘Romance With a Memory’ and ‘Fruit’.

Album Review: Jack White, ‘Fear of the Dawn’

Fear of the Dawn technically has one title track. It comes right after the opener ‘Taking Me Back’, which is driven by a frantic rock riff that’s thrilling enough to get every alienated fan back on board after the dragged-out absurdism of 2018’s Boarding House Reach. It’s the most conventional-sounding song the album has to offer, even if it suggests Jack White’s avant-rock tendencies have all but vanished. (A gentler version of the song will feature on the second LP White has planned for 2022, the reportedly quieter Entering Heaven Alive). It’s also the first and only song that introduces the theme of a broken relationship, be it with a former partner or his own audience – the rest of the album’s lyrical content revolves around mostly nonsensical motifs, best encapsulated in ‘Fear of the Dawn’, another invigorating track that ramps up the momentum with a propulsive instrumental that splits the difference between Queens of the Stone Age and Black Sabbath. It’s enough to distract you from whatever White is trying to say, which, of course, isn’t really the point of any of these songs.

Just a few songs later, though, comes ‘Eosophobia’, which is literally the album title, but in Greek. There probably isn’t something all that funny about the fact it’s basically just a sophisticated term for the same kind of anxiety (even I, a Greek person, had to look it up), and it certainly shouldn’t form the basis of an argument about the many sides that make up Jack White as a musician, beyond the heavy/soft dynamic reinforced by this release cycle. But it can’t entirely be a coincidence that though ‘Eosophobia’ begins as sort of an acoustic tune, it’s not long before it fuses elements of dub reggae and classic blues rock, throwing in a wonky prog breakdown while also carrying a trace of the nu metal vibe that permeates the album. If it sounds like a bit much, it’s because it is, and I can’t decide if it’s one of the wild experiments that actually works. Mostly, the song serves to reaffirm the already established impression that there’s also Jack White the eccentric, and it’s the one that gets a three-minute ‘Reprise’ that’s as occasionally brilliant as it is superfluous.

Make of that what you will, but you have to commend White’s unbridled commitment to messing around with no concern as to whether what comes out makes sense as a cohesive whole. There’s no doubt Fear of the Dawn shares Boarding House Reach’s audacious spirit, but it also presents something of a paradox: in a sense it’s almost more bizarre than its predecessor, but in another it feels like somewhat of a compromise, an attempt to project a more single-minded focus without sacrificing its manic energy. At its best it sounds refreshingly forceful, at its worst kind of forced – as if drawing from a bunch of different genres could compensate for the fact that we don’t yet get to hear what it may sound like alongside its unreleased counterpart. It all falls apart when he tries to make something danceable, combining a Cab Calloway sample, a verse from Q-Tip, and some gaudy flamenco vocals on the early single ‘Hi-De-Ho’ and sampling both William S. Burroughs and Manhattan Transfer on the horribly funky ‘Into the Twilight’.

By contrast, songs like ‘That Was Then, This Is Now’ and ‘Morning, Noon and Night’ return to the reliable garage rock style that White can pull off better than most, trading the polished production that would have made it on Lazaretto with rougher, synthier undertones. Boarding House Reach proved that an awkwardly chaotic Jack White record could be entertaining in its own way, but Fear of the Dawn manages to come off as both overstimulating and weightless, and not just because its most memorable lines are those that helpfully scan as self-critique (“Are you making plans or just making sounds?” “I’m not as bad as I was/ But not as good as I can be.”) He saves the best piece of advice for last: “Better to illuminate than merely to shine,” White sings on ‘Shedding My Velvet’, an acoustic closer that probably acts as a bridge to Entering Heaven Alive, which he has said fans will enjoy “three times as much.” At the same time, it’s as much a reminder of what’s obviously missing from the album as it is a chance to reflect on the dark, furious intensity of everything that’s come before, like stepping into the light and recognizing the glorious mess behind you.

Is The Opera Still Relevant This 2022?

Humans have always been excellent storytellers, from cave paintings depicting how they captured their dinner to modern fables that parents read to their children every day. Another way of telling these stories is by acting them out on a stage while singing the lines instead of telling them.

The opera is a beautiful way of transporting the audience to another time and place while making them feel part of the storyline. Characters come alive on stage, and the singers’ clear melodies land softly on the ear. Raw emotions travel from the singers to the audience, and great scenes are often the backdrop of the classical notes.

A symphonic orchestra accompanies the story to bring the music to life spectacularly. All these grand gestures tell one story, and many still ask; is the opera still relevant in 2022?

An Opera Is An Important Form Of Art

We can describe art as an action that a person performs to create something new or beautiful. Different art forms come together in an opera. The display of a masterpiece takes the audience away from their troubles for a while. 

Many people don’t realize that the singers practice their part, the set design happens months in advance, and the orchestra goes through each piece of music for hours each day. The theatre prepares the venue and employs hundreds of employees to help make the performance a comfortable experience for everyone.

Some opera singers have dedicated most of their lives to their performances and helped shape the opera that many still enjoy today. One of those singers, Lily Pons, was dubbed the prima donna assoluta for her contributions in the 1900s. To deliver songs with such perfect pitch that it inspires others takes many years of perfecting.

Many opera singers followed in her footsteps, and the mere mention of their names would make anyone agree that an opera is an exquisite form of art. Their unique interpretations of old classics have carried this art forward and will continue for years to come.

It Is Part Of Human Culture

Like other forms of art, opera pieces depict and reflect parts of ourselves. We resonate with the characters and identify their emotions in our own lives. Opera is not just a story that actors portray; it is a part of human culture.

Modern movies have genres like Sci-Fi that don’t show scenes that would happen during a day on earth, while opera storylines would follow events like love stories that people can see themselves in. Opera is a genre where almost anyone can see a part of reality. It drew crowds from all over to witness the performances and still does today, with some theatre productions available to enjoy from the comfort of our homes.

People attend opera performances to remind them of that part of their culture that they may not have been practicing for some time. It is a part of history that everyone should be familiar with, young or old. We must never forget a cultural gem as we have in opera.

Opera Music Stimulates The Senses

There is little in the world that compares to the absolute power of music. It awakens feelings from the inside that manifest on the outside. Music that we feel deep in our souls could give us goosebumps on our skin because it is so touching. Without physically touching us, it touches the heart and mind.

Opera singers have a specific way of singing that makes their voice carry over the entire theater without using microphones or other equipment. How brilliant is that when it gives us all those feelings without being amplified? Music like opera has a calming effect on the nervous system and may even stimulate the area of the brain that deals with excitement and pleasure. No wonder so many people flock to these productions.

During one performance, the audience visually sees the performers. They hear the beautiful melodies from the voices and orchestra. The live rendition makes them want to reach out and be part of the experience.

The Last Aria

Opera is a unique art form combining singing, acting, language skills, and voice manipulation in ways no other singer can. The performances bring people from all walks of life together. Even when you don’t understand the language, the singer tells the story beautifully. The fact that you feel it means you already know what each character is conveying.

The great sounds that fill the air seem tangible, and the opera singers, along with the orchestra, whisk the audience away instantly. Music with such flowing tones stimulates the senses and demands the appreciation that the audience will surely give. Opera can’t be mistaken for anything else-they are masterpieces.

Sacred Bones Shares New Covers by Boris and Thou, Mizmor, and Emma Ruth Rundle

Todo Muere SBXV is a new compilation celebrating the 15th anniversary of Sacred Bones Records. The collection features artists on the label covering one another’s songs, and today, two more tracks from the compilation have been made available. Boris have offered their take on ‘Funnel of Love’, which was famously recorded by Wanda Jackson in 1960 and also covered by Sqürl, while Emma Ruth Rundle, Thou, and Mizmor have covered Zola Jesus’ ‘Night’. Take a listen below.

“Before I knew about Sacred Bones, I was a huge fan of Zola Jesus, her music was my entry ticket to becoming a fan of the label,” Thou singer Bryan Funck said in a statement.

On their cover of ‘Funnel of Love’, Boris commented: “We strived to reimagine this great rock classic and share its beauty with a new audience through a fresh interpretation.”

Along with the announcement of Todo Muere SBXV, Sacred Bones shared covers by Marissa Nadler and The Hunt. The compilation is due out May 27.