Gang of Youths have announced a new LP: angel in realtime is due out February 25 via Warner Records. Along with the album news, they’ve also announced a run of North American 2022 dates and shared the single ‘tend the garden’. Check out the new song as well as the album details and the band’s tour schedule below.
In a press release, the band stated that “the album is about the life and legacy of Dave Le’aupepe’s father, indigenous identity, death, grief and God. And also the Angel, Islington.”
Le’aupepe elaborated: “My dad was a gifted and passionate gardener. It’s where he funnelled a lot of his energy and sensitivity, and despite our humble surroundings, we were always surrounded by beauty. The journey he made from Samoa to NZ to Australia was a difficult and inspiring one, but also fraught with mistakes, regret and terrible choices. I like to think he was building something beautiful, and pondering what life had given him in spite of his mistakes and concealment. We never knew his story until after he died, so this is the most poetic interpretation of his affinity for gardening that I could think of.”
“I hope the record stands as a monument to the man my father was and remains long after I’m gone myself,” Le’aupepe added. “He deserved it.”
angel in realtime will include the previously released singles ‘the angel of 8th ave’ and ‘the man himself’. Gang of Youths shared the surprise EP total serene in July, and their last album was 2017’s Go Farther in Lightness.
angel in realtime Cover Artwork:
angel in realtime Tracklist:
1. you in everything
2. in the wake of your leave
3. the angel of 8th ave.
4. returner
5. unison
6. tend the garden
7. the kingdom is within you
8. spirit boy
9. brothers
10. forbearance
11. the man himself
12. hand of god
13. goal of the century
Gang of Youths 2022 Tour Dates:
Apr 21 – Madison, WI – Majestic Theatre
Apr 22 – Indianapolis, IN – The Vogue
Apr 24 – Columbus, OH – Newport Music Hall
Apr 25 – Louisville, KY – Mercury Ballroom
Apr 27 – Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
Apr 28: Charlotte, NC – The Underground
May 1 – Nashville, TN – The Basement East
May 3 – Chicago, IL – Metro
May 4 – Detroit, MI – Shelter
May 6 – Toronto, ON – Danforth Music Hall
May 7 – Montreal, QC L’Astral
May 9 – Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club
May 10 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel
May 12 – Philadelphia, PA – Theatre of the Living Arts
May 13 -Washington, DC – Union Stage
May 16 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
May 18 – Los Angeles, CA – Belasco Theater
May 20 – Las Vegas, NV – 24 Oxford
May 21 – Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom
May 23 – Austin, TX – Scoot Inn
May 24 – Dallas, TX – The Echo Lounge & Music Hall
May 26 – Tulsa, OK – Cain’s Ballroom
Sep 13 – Milwaukee, WI – The Rave II
Sep 14 – Minneapolis, MN First Avenue – Mainroom
Sep 16 – St. Louis, MO – Delmar Hall
Sep 17 – Lawrence, KS – The Bottleneck
Sep 19 – Englewood, CO – Gothic Theatre
Sep 20 – Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge
Sep 22 – Portland, OR – Revolution Hall
Sep 23 – Vancouver, BC – Rickshaw Theatre
Sep 25 – Seattle, WA – Neumos
Sep 27 – Sacramento, CA – Ace of Spades
Hailing from the Isle of Man, Penelope Isles is a Brighton-based band led by siblings Jack and Lily Wolter. When Jack – six years Lily’s elder – came back home from university, she had already started getting into music and playing in bands, and they started a group together called Your Gold Teeth, which lasted until Lily moved to Brighton to study songwriting. Jack eventually joined her there, and the pair formed Penelope Isles and shared their first EP, Comfortably Swell, in 2015, before releasing their dreamy, artfully crafted debut, Until the Tide Creeps In, via Bella Union in 2019. Then, halfway through their North American tour in support of the album, the pandemic hit, and the group decamped to a cottage in Cornwall to start work on their sophomore record.
It ended up being a turbulent and emotionally charged time, with the band going through multiple line-up changes. Now joined by Henry Nicholson on bass and Joe Taylor on drums, they sent the mix to Flaming Lips collaborator Dave Fridmann, with English composer Fiona Brice also providing beautiful string arrangements on some of the tracks. Produced by Jack, Which Way to Happy finds the band expanding their mercurial sound, allowing it to reach soaring heights against a rich, widescreen palette. More captivating than anything is Jack and Lily’s dynamic: hearing the album’s gorgeous, ethereal melodies amplify and distort their raw confessions can feel a bit like watching them trying to desperately keep the ship from sinking, catching glimpses of each other through the swirling haze. But for all its twists and turns, Penelope Isles sound more controlled and clear-eyed than ever by the end: they have weathered the storm and come out stronger on the other side.
We caught up with Penelope Isles’ Jack and Lily Wolter for this edition of our Artist Spotlight interview series to talk about how they started making music together, the process of making Which Way to Happy, and more.
You started playing music as teenagers, but because of your age difference, it was something you explored quite separately. How much would you say you bonded over music at an early age?
Lily Wolter: I was more into classical jazz music, dealing with grades and exams and stuff, compared to Jack’s experience. When we first bonded I would say was when Jack – I got an iPod shuffle for my like 15th birthday.
Jack Wolter: I think you were a lot younger than that.
LW: And Jack put loads of music on it. That’s how got into more rock and indie and stuff. He put like, the Kooks on there, the Thrills, Paramore. That’s when I first heard Radiohead, and that’s when we started talking about bands and getting into it together.
JW: I think it was the first time Lily started falling in love with bands and certain songs that become a part of your life. And then I went away for about four or five years to study, and when I came back, Lily had started playing in bands and with her friends and we started our own band. I had a bunch of songs I wanted to play live with the band, and Lily was around so I taught her how to play the bass and we just started gigging.
Lily, can you think of anything non-musical that you learned from Jack at that age?
LW: Oh, that’s a really sweet question. I think more just social skills and confidence in interacting with people, I was heavily influenced by Jack at a young age. Not a lot of older brothers would do this, but I used to go visit him when I was about 14-15. I used to go from the Isle of Man to Cornwall to visit Jack when he was like 20, 21, 22, and that’s quite a young age to do that. But it definitely massively shaped who I am today, if it wasn’t for those little visits in the summertime.
JW: That’s quite nice.
LW: Yeah, the way you communicate and how you are with people, I think we’re quite similar in that way.
In what way do you mean?
LW: I feel like this is like therapy a bit? [laughter]
If it’s too much, that’s totally fine. You don’t have to answer.
JW: No, it’s nice. They’re different to the normal questions we get asked. But we’re both quite friendly and quite confident in some in some ways, quite easygoing. I’m not trying to be big-headed, you know, but that kind of thing. Until you really get to know us, and then we’re just dickheads [laughs].
Jack, can I ask you the same question? Was there something that you learned from Lily?
LW: No. [laughs]
JW: I think more so nowadays, I learn a lot from Lily. She’s like my best mate and I look up to her a lot. I think when we were younger, I kind of took her under my wing a little bit, and definitely vibed off how enthusiastic she was back in the day. As far as little sisters go, she’d be well up for anything, you know, like you weren’t grossed out by being in the van with all of us. But I think more later in life, I look up to Lily and we’ve got each other’s backs.
When you first started playing together as Your Gold Teeth, did it feel natural right away, or was it in any way challenging?
JW: It was challenging in the sense that Lily had never played bass before, but it was never a barrier.
LW: It was very much Jack’s project and he was sort of the ringleader. I’d never really been really in a band before, so I was very stoked to be playing bass and getting off the Isle of Man and seeing a little bit of the UK.
JW: It was exciting more than anything. The songs and the instrumentation were all relatively simple. It wasn’t technical stuff. It felt like a really natural exciting thing, and we slowly built up a really small fan base, but it felt significant. And then Penelope Isles kind of happened after that – we had solo projects and then we formed those solo projects to make Penelope Isles.
When that happened, did you go into it with the intention of there being more of an equal dynamic?
LW: I think with this record more so than the last. I was still sort of finding out who I was in the first record, I was still quite young. I wasn’t writing as much, so I only have maybe two or three songs on the first record. Whereas this one is a lot more of an even split. It just happened naturally, I sort of immersed myself into it more, because it’s very much what I want to do with my life and my career. There wasn’t even a conversation about – it was just like, “Jack’s got a load of songs, I’ve got a load of songs, let’s just record them and see what happens at the end.”
You began working on the album while staying at a small cottage in Cornwall, where you’ve said things kind of spiraled out of control. Having a certain distance from it now, is it easier for you to process what happened?
LW: The whole world just fell out of control, so it’s hard to imagine what that time would have been like if it wasn’t a pandemic. But it’s also a weird comfort knowing that it wasn’t just us going through this really weird time. Everyone was going through it.
JW: I think we just, like, worked a bit too hard. The reason why we went to Cornwall to do it is we love surfing, so we were going to get up in the morning, go for a surf, come back, spend like five or six hours on the music and then have a barbecue or go hang out with mom and dad, who live down the road. Because we didn’t do that, and we weren’t allowed to do it, we worked really hard on the record, and then obviously, we just drank a load as well. And I think in hindsight, it would have been amazing to do it differently, but I’m also weirdly glad that it happened that way. Because I think we pushed ourselves to a certain point that we almost broke our flow. And because of that, we had to reevaluate our situation, and then I think we actually got a better sounding record out of it in the end. So, kind of glad it happened even though it was a strange time.
Could you share some highlights from the recording process?
JW: There was this one song, ‘Rocking at the Bottom’. We started recording that song, and it was amazing. We had this drum beat down, this really fun bass line, and then we put some guitars on it. We spent like a day getting the song down, and I remember that night, we’d all have a bit to drink and we’re dancing around the cottage going, “This is so cool.” So that was a highlight, but soon after that, that song kind of deteriorated. I don’t know exactly what happened, it was definitely on the percussive side of it. On closer evaluation, something wasn’t right with it. And because we loved this bass line so much, we wanted to keep it, and we kind of had to rearrange that song around the bass line, and it soon became an absolute nightmare. To the point that I was thinking, “How are we going to make this song work?”
LW: I kind of almost just lost interest. It went on for so long just trying to work out how to get that drum and bass line down, I was just like, “You guys just do this. I can’t deal with it anymore.” I couldn’t even hear the problem anymore. I just couldn’t. Yeah, it was hard. But Jack cracked it. I remember coming in the studio and Jack had been up all night working it out and he was like, “I’ve done it.”
How did you go about collecting and using the field recordings for the record?
JW: There’s a bit in ‘Have You Heard’, there’s like a little noise, you can hear kind of laughing and conversation and us fooling around. It’s quite distorted, you can’t really hear it. But there was a lake near the cottage where we were staying, and we’d go to the lake and there’s a little old rowing boat that we’d go out when we just had enough in the studio. And obviously, we were limited to where we could go, but we could go to this lake. We did a lot of recording out there just with our phones.
LW: Jack fell into the lake, and I captured it on my voice notes.
Is that on the record?
JW: Yeah, it’s more us just laughing.
LW: He goes, “I’m soaking wet mate!”
JW: I remember we did have a conversation about it. We were going through our phones in the studio at that point looking for something that would fit, and that kind of made total sense. But then the last track, ‘In a Cage’, our friend Eugene, he’s the last thing you hear on the record. He passed away just before we started making the record, actually, and I found this recording – 10 years ago, when we were mates on the Isle of Man, I had this microphone recorder thing, and I used to take it around when I was studying art. I would do field recordings and then I’d use them in artwork. And I remember we were all hanging out on the beach once, all of our friends, and then I’d left it recording. And basically, the last thing you hear on the record is Eugene – we all left, and he found the little recorder, him and his girlfriend were like, “Oh, look, Jack’s left his little recording device.” And then you can hear him coming down and he picks it up and he goes, “Haha, I’ve got you Jack!” And that’s the last thing you hear. It meant a lot to us to have that finish the record, just a little nod to Eugene.
Lily, did you know what that field recording was when it was first introduced to you?
LW: I wasn’t there, I was a little bit too young to be hanging out with all those guys back then. But it was really emotional when Jack found it. I mean, you said you don’t feel sad when you listen to it, you’re really happy, which is really nice. But yeah, I think it means a lot to us, but it’ll mean a lot to a lot of our friends back home as well when they hear it.
What was it like recording the vocals for ’11 11’?
LW: I was just really sad. I was really sad. I was going through a breakup, my first breakup. Which really sort of benefited the take, to be honest, to a certain extent. I could only really sing it like couple times, but I think we only did two takes and that was enough.
JW: Lily just poured her heart into it. And it was tough – obviously, having someone so upset, you just want to comfort them. But I knew that I needed to capture it, instead of going, “Oh sweetie, are you okay? Should we go outside, get some fresh air?” Which is probably what in any other situation anyone would have done, especially the big brother side of me. But I was like, “Alright, should we do another take then?” [laughter] We tried a third one, but it was actually a blabbering mess.
LW: It started to get a bit ugly on the third one [laughs].
Jack, you have some vulnerable vocals takes there as well, did you have a similar moment recording any of them?
JW: I do remember recording the vocals for ‘Pink Lemonade’, and I couldn’t get the vocal down for a while. It’s kind of a vulnerable vocal take. And I remember I’d stayed up, it was like four in the morning and I was on my own in the studio, and I just looped the whole song. I just sung about like 20 takes on my own and like, and I remember just really enjoying it. I was like, “This is working.”
LW: I think sometimes you just do it so much better when you’re on your own, especially when it’s a vulnerable song. Some of the demos I’ve made, I prefer my vocal takes so much more sometimes because it’s extra vulnerable, rather than being surrounded by people and trying to convey that.
Can you tell me one thing that you learned from each other during this whole process of making the record?
JW: It was a bit of a whirlwind, I must admit, the whole thing.
LW: I feel like I’ve aged three years since making this record.
How long has it actually been? A year?
JW: A year and a half-ish. But yeah, me and Lily have gone through like breakups and relationships, financially it’s been difficult, not being able to tour, and I think the record has been a little bit of an anchor, having something to focus on.
LW: I think the best part about it for me it was when we finished it, me and Jack went to Cornwall for four months to live at home and we just went surfing every day. Just switched off. I learned to surf, and Jack taught me to surf, and that was a whole new part of our relationship, just not to do with music. And it was so great. Sometimes I wish that I could just go back to that time and just have nothing to do but go surfing. We were so privileged where we live at home with our mom and dad, we would just go surfing and then come back and write some new songs and watch a bit of TV. It was just bloody lovely.
What do you love about surfing?
LW: Aww. That’s so funny, man, someone asked me that yesterday. I think for me, I only started at Christmas and really dived into it, pardon the pun. And I’d never thought I’d be able to do it. I was the worst in school at sports, and I just never thought I would be able to do it. And I really, really tried. And now, when I catch a wave, I just feel really proud of myself. For me, it’s like no other feeling. What about you?
JW: I think it’s just like – obviously being in the ocean and riding the wave is absolutely amazing. But it’s just the process as well, the knowledge of the sea and the trust, the whole process of reading the ocean and being a part of something. Riding a wave, it’s different every time.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
With gaming being so ubiquitous across smartphones, home consoles, PCs and Macs, it’s a cultural landmark that is very much here to stay. As such, ‘being a gamer’ is even seen as a lifestyle aspect for many people. What’s more, it’s also getting easier to pinpoint certain times of year when gamers and players can expect some of the best titles for their chosen devices.
That goes not only for console users and PC fans, but for those looking at slot and card games online, too. Anyone likely to look up Betfair casino reviews will also have favorite times of year when they are likely to see new titles pop up.
Fall and winter just so happen to be pivotal times of year for gamers of all calibers and experiences. But why is that – and can we really expect the same level of excitement at other times of year too?
Developers are preparing for the holiday rush
The biggest reason for there being such an influx of big-name games and innovative releases in fall and winter is, of course, to do with the holiday season. Parents will be looking for games to buy for their children, and adult gamers will also be looking to treat each other with triple-A titles. The fact is, this is a massive shopping season, so from a business perspective, it makes sense to save the biggest hitters until the droves are likely to hit the stores.
This applies just as much from a physical shopping perspective as it does online, too. Players are accustomed to sites such as GoG and Humble Bundle running massive sales during holiday periods. Steam, too, tends to lead the way for PC gaming with their seasonal sales. In fact, Valve has generally swung the other way in recent years, with their Steam summer sales gaining legendary status – but that’s another story.
We’re spending more time indoors
Just as movie-makers anticipate there being huge rushes to see blockbuster films in the summer, game developers are ready to play to those who are likely to stay indoors during the cold. Yes – you can play mobile slot games on public transit or on breaks at the office – but people generally want to settle in with a great game or two in the cozy comforts of their own homes. As such, gamers can expect some great titles to pop up later on in the year.
Gaming isn’t always seen as a social hobby, at least not offline, though this changes drastically during the fall and winter months. It’s a time for family and friends to come together – which is why big-selling games such as the Jackbox Party Pack lines do particularly well when the cold sets in. Whether it’s Christmas or Thanksgiving, once dinner has settled, people love to play games – and that’s one reason why party games and titles do a fantastic trade this time of year.
It’s a great time to launch special game twists and add-ons
Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas – all are universally recognizable. What’s more, when it comes to slot games in particular, many developers take the opportunity to release ‘special’ versions of titles that have generic themes and styles throughout the year. For example, you might occasionally see Christmas versions of your favorite slots.
It’s also a great time of year to expect festive content in console and PC games too. Fortnite, in particular, has been rich in seasonal and themed content released as DLC over the years. Animal Crossing players will also likely find rafts of seasonal add-ons and items for their homes and villages too. Ultimately, it’s an exciting time of year for any gamers hoping for something a little bit different from titles they’ve already well-loved across the year.
It’s a great time to be a gamer
Regardless of the time of year you choose to dive into your favorite games, we are extremely lucky to live in an era where there is superb content constantly heading our way. Yes – there’s often an abundance of great titles that pop up over fall and winter – but release calendars are getting more balanced as the years go by.
It very much goes the same for all other types of media too. We’re in a golden age for great horror movies, for example. Therefore, as any avid gamer will tell you, it’s not always worth just holding on for games at the back end of the year!
If photography is a hobby of yours, then this is something that you should show off in your home. Displaying your personal photographs around your living space can be a reminder of good times, and can spur you on to take more pictures in the future. Having a sense of pride in your work isn’t something to shy away from – if you take good pictures, showcase them! Here we will take a look at different ways you can display your favourite pictures throughout your home.
Canvas Print
Order a canvas print of your most professional photography shots and dazzle any visitors you might have over. Canvases look classy, are good value for money, and are easy to create online. They are also highly versatile – on Hello Canvas you can edit them to your liking, with various different sizes, materials, and frame options to choose from, so they can fit within your home perfectly.
Poster
If you think your images resemble an album cover or a film advert, then have some fun with them. There are plenty of poster-making options online where you can make edits with your own images, making them look like genuine advertisements. This could also be a unique gift to give to somebody if they have similar interests to you. Have a play around today and see what you can come up with – let your creativity shine!
Collage
If you have endless photos you’ve taken over the years that you’ve never done anything with, why don’t you print a number of them and create a collage? You can group them in themes, whether it be specific years, seasons, events, or places. If you’re unsure how exactly to arrange your pictures, buying a collage frame is always an option, but if you wish to have more freedom with each picture, you can easily assort them and stick them up however you please.
Hanging Display
Hanging displays are a more unique way to show off an array of your photos, whilst giving a stylish nod to interior design at the same time. You’ll most likely need to have small to medium prints for hanging displays, as anything too large wouldn’t work. You can make your own photo hanging display with various materials, such as string and pegs, or even fairy lights. Or, alternatively, there are plenty of different options for you to buy hanging kits if that makes it easier for you. Weigh up your different options.
Photo Album
A more traditional way to display your photography shots is in a photo album if you want to be more discreet. These days, disposable cameras with printable pictures are a lot less common, so now we have the option to create photo albums online, with our digital pictures. You can really add a personal touch to your imagery in photo albums, with different dimensions, colours, shapes, and the option to add captions. Again, this is also a great idea for a gift to anybody that admires your work.
If you’re a talented photographer, that is a wonderful thing – don’t be shy when it comes to showing your favourite pictures off! Otherwise, what’s the point in you taking them in the first place?
Millennials are stressed about their retirement, and the level of stress grows every day. Not only are their expenses consistently rising just like everyone else’s, but they are part of a working generation that is seeing incredible degrees of wage stagnation. Data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics show that average hourly wages, when adjusted for inflation, have barely budged in decades.
There are other factors that significantly elevate the level of stress that millennials feel surrounding their potential retirement as well. Many are experiencing the after-effects of the Covid pandemic, and have nearly or completely wiped out any savings they had. Some are even stressing about their parents’ retirement as well, helping them choose the right IRA options and so on.
The Money Worries Never Stop
The consistent push to attend college and get a degree has left countless millennials saddled with enormous levels of student loan debt that can be difficult to leverage in the current job market. Many of these loans were through federal loan programs, but the monthly payments can still be devastating in some cases. Even with access to some of the best debt consolidation options, some millennials still struggle with being able to put anything aside for debt repayment.
This leads millennials to have less overall disposable income than any other generation, which is then taken up by the rising cost of living. The primary concerns most millennials face financially, include:
Economic growth
Unemployment
Being able to afford to care for their health.
The result of this is a near-constant state of monetary anxiety that millions of members of a generation live with. This stress and worry have forced millennials to focus on the near-term effects of their money because their experience tells them it won’t be around in the long term due to bills, expenses, emergencies, or inflationary decay.
Covid Hasn’t Helped
While many millennials find that normal life is challenging enough, the recent pandemic has created an entirely new set of stressors. Millions of millennial workers found themselves unable to work during the early days of the pandemic, and even with stimulus money, many people still found themselves underwater.
Any savings that existed would have been the first to go, and after that, many people turned to credit cards. Even though temporary and burdened with dangerous interest, these were a lifesaver for many. In some cases, those who became desperate and had retirement funds, such as a company 401(k), may have taken early disbursements or even hardship withdrawals.
Retirement Is Expensive
What it really comes down to is that for most millennials, “retirement” really means “saving for retirement,” which is something that so many don’t have the option to even do in many cases. Even those that do save may not be saving nearly enough to make the retirement they want a possibility.
Recent research from the National Institute on Retirement Security shows that up to 95% of millennials aren’t saving what they need to. The report shows that not only are depressed wages and lack of eligibility hampering participation but that only about one-third of employees even participate in retirement programs when they are offered.
The Final Word
With so many individual stressors and contributing factors, there are plenty of reasons for millennials to be anxious about retirement. While there are side-hustles and ways to save a little extra here and there, for many it seems like a nearly-impossible uphill journey. Even with so many challenges on the path to retirement, millennials are resilient and will find a way that works for them on an individual level.
Pom Pom Squad have released a new single called ‘Until It Stops’, which was produced by illuminati hotties‘ Sarah Tudzin. The track was recorded at Electric Lady Studios as part of Spotify’s new Fresh Finds program. Check it out below.
“‘Until it Stops’ is my version of a drinking song,” Pom Pom Squad’s Mia Berrin said in a statement. “I’m not much of a partier but I’m in my early twenties so whenever I turn down an invite to go out I go through an internal dialogue wondering if I’m missing my youth. Then, when I actually do go out, I get uncomfortable and then I drink too much and put my foot in my mouth and go home with all my makeup under my eyes. At the time I wrote this I was thinking about those super sugary club songs of the 2000s that always seemed to mention dancing and death in the same line—there is this strange morbid connection between partying and mortality.”
Tudzin added: “Working with Pom Pom Squad is such a pleasure—Mia is so full of fantastic ideas that all point toward building a cohesive universe. Her art & self-expression are unparalleled—when it’s time to hit the studio we have all the time in the world to play with production & recording tricks to best execute her vision.”
Drug Church – the Albany and Los Angeles-based five-piece of vocalist Patrick Kindlon, guitarists Nick Cogan and Cory Galusha, bassist Pat Wynne, and drummer Chris Villeneuve – have announced their fourth album. Hygiene is set to drop on March 11 via Pure Noise Records. It includes the new songs ‘Million Miles of Fun’ and ‘Detective Lieutenant’, which can check out below, along with the record’s cover artwork and full tracklist.
Recorded with producer/engineer Jon Markson, Hygiene will follow Drug Church’s 2018 album Cheer as well as their 2021 EP Tawny.
Hygiene Cover Artwork:
Hygiene Tracklist:
1. Fun’s Over
2. Super Saturated
3. Plucked
4. Million Miles of Fun
5. Detective Lieutenant
6. Tiresome
7. World Impact
8. Premium Offer
9. Piss & Quiet
10. Athlete on Bench
Richmond, VA-based artist Kate Bollinger has signed to Ghostly International and shared her first single for the label, ‘Yards / Gardens’. Co-written with her longtime collaborator John Trainum and guitarist Chris Lewis, the track comes with an accompanying video from director Mitch deQuilettes. Check it out below.
‘Yards / Gardens’ reflects “feeling resistant to change, during a time when it felt like everything was changing,” Bollinger said in a statement about the track. Of the video, deQuilettes added: “For ‘Yards / Gardens,’ Kate and I wanted to take the sonic spirit of the track and translate its feeling into the video instead of using the direct lyrical meaning. We wanted to give homage to 60’s & 70’s films such as Godard’s ‘Pierrot Le Fou,’ Melville’s ‘Le Cercle Rouge’ and Altman’s ‘The Long Goodbye.’ It was important to us to keep the piece campy and light, while keeping it grounded in realism.”
Along with the news, Kate Bollinger has also announced a 2022 European tour, including stops in London, Manchester, and Paris. Find the full list of dates below.
Apr 30 – Dublin, IE – The Workman’s Club
May 3 – Bristol, UK – The Louisiana
May 4 – London, UK – Colours
May 6 – Nottingham, UK – The Bodega Social Club
May 7 – Leeds, UK – Hyde Park Book Club
May 10 – Newcastle upon Tyne, UK – The Cluny
May 11 – Manchester, UK – YES
My 16 – Brussels, BE – Botanique
May 17 – Stuttgart, DE – Café Galao
May 19 – Berlin, DE – Badehaus Szimpla
May 20 – Darmstadt, DE – Bedroomdisco
May 21 – Paris, FR – Le Pop Up!
Beach House have shared the first 4-song chapter from their just-announced album Once Twice Melody. The 18-track LP will be unveiled in four separate chapters over the next few months before the full album release on February 18. Listen to the album’s title track, ‘Superstar’, ‘Pink Funeral’, and ‘Through Me’ below.
The follow-up to 2018’s 7 is the first full-length that Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally produced entirely by themselves. Chapter Two is set to arrive on December 8, and Chapter Three is out on January 19. Once Time Melody will be available in a limited “gold” edition 2xLP and a normal silver 2xLP via Sub Pop (US) / Bella Union (UK/Europe) / Mistletone (Australia/New Zealand).
It’s hard to keep up a graceful appearance when the world seems to be slipping through your fingers. For musicians, leveling up your sound can provide an easy solution: it’s a move that’s going to be expected and likely respected, a refinement that can mask whatever turmoil is lurking underneath. But a successful sophomore effort usually requires a finer balance; retaining the urgency and intimacy that often marks an artist’s early material while expanding on their promise, and Snail Mail certainly does this on her second album, Valentine. At this point, however, the 22-year-old Lindsey Jordan is as familiar with the trappings of fame as she is with the musical templates of indie rock, and her relationship with both seems to be as volatile as the romantic attachments she documents in her music. Even if she wrote much of the album in the same bedroom where she penned her earliest songs and is still burdened by the same unrequited yearning, her perspective has evidently changed.
Following her blistering 2018 debut Lush and created “on the heels of life-altering success, a painful breakup, and 6 weeks in treatment,” every choice on Valentine represents a commitment, more than anything, to reflect that complicated feeling: of knowing you have to move on but standing with one foot in the past and the other in the future, of being torn between reality and fantasy, of craving stability but finding yourself falling back in limbo. Because whatever previously coloured your outlook on life and love – some potent combination of idealism and nostalgia that ended up harbouring a whole lot of toxicity – has been abandoned without something there yet to sufficiently replace it. Percolating in that space, Valentine becomes an album about the growth that happens when you just want to lie down and collect your breath, without even realizing it.
But first, Jordan lets out a storm: “So why’d you want to erase me/ Darling valentine?” she howls on the chorus of the opening title track, her voice seething with a desperation matched only by the explosive instrumentation around her. After this sudden jolt of catharsis, the album eases into moodier, groovier, yet consistently compelling territory, engaging your attention even with the tacit acknowledgment that nothing that follows can possibly come close – much like the memory of the subjects Jordan clings to throughout the album, a feeling once compact spreads out into a dozen imagined shapes. But it’s still impossible to ignore, much less contain; some version of all-consuming devotion reverberates through nearly every song on Valentine, and with help from co-producer Brad Cook (Waxahatchee, Indigo De Souza), each variation is rendered in vivid detail. The steady, infectious groove and ironic detachment of ‘Ben Franklin’ is undercut by a stinging awareness of heartache; the ghostly backing vocals that haunt the dreamy backdrop of ‘Headlock’ seem to follow directly from a brush with death.
In embodying the singer’s fixations, the album might be less stylistically defined than Snail Mail’s debut, but it feels all the more honest and powerful as a result. “I wanna wake up early everyday/ Just to be awake in the same world as you,” she sings on the acoustic cut ‘Light Blue’, a sweet proclamation that somehow isn’t darkened by everything that surrounds it. But its placement next to ‘Headlock’ does reveal the slippage of time, the way absence can have you reaching for that same feeling in impossible places: “Another world where we’re together/ Are you lost in it too?” Valentine asserts that being left behind sucks, but not as much as being the one who has to leave things behind; and as much as it moves towards acceptance, Jordan finds ways to briefly swim above it. With its interpolation of a 1979 song by Madleen Kane, ‘Forever (Sailing)’ mirrors the singer’s fading sense of self, fulfilling the desire behind her question: “Doesn’t obsession just become me?” Yet the pain is too pronounced to disregard: “So much destruction/ Look at what we did/ That was so real/ And you don’t just forget.”
Valentine resonates because it is direct without compromising on the blurry dynamics of the circumstances it revolves around. Even when tempted to build layers around a façade, her intense self-awareness grounds everything in an unresolved yet dazzling reality. Jordan’s voice exudes a newfound confidence and clarity that’s obvious in the R&B-inflected ‘Madonna’ or the enrapturing ‘Automate’ but slips into even the quietest, most unassuming corners of the album, like the stripped-back ‘c. et al.’, working towards vulnerability rather than against it. When the time comes for the string-backed finale of ‘Mia’, Jordan paints the scene of the morning after a breakup with such devastating weight it’s hard to believe she’s been tracing it this whole time, that we’re back to square one. Because when she assures her lover she’s older now on ‘Valentine’, the loudness sends a mixed message; but with ‘Mia’, the suggestion feels closer to the truth, itself inescapable. “I love you forever,” she sings over strings that flutter like flowers in the wind. “But I’ve gotta grow up now.”
