Blunt Chunks has unveiled a new song, ‘High Hopes’, which is lifted from her forthcoming album The Butterfly Myth. Following lead cut ‘Psyche’s Flight’, the track is featured on tomorrow’s new episode of Law & Order Toronto. Take a listen below.
“I first wrote ‘High Hopes’ in 2018,” Caitlin Woelfle-O’Brien explained in a statement. “I just sort of left it as an unfinished idea and over the years I would come back to it, finesse the chorus, and sing it to myself as my little anthem. When we started working on the record I really wanted to include it but I was struggling to figure out the structure, so Dave and I called upon Maddee Ritter for help, and we figured it out one night. Then Diego added some jazzy Rhodes and the song really took a new shape.”
She continued: “The lyrics are pretty self-explanatory, just about an anxious feeling I had when the person I was falling in love with was pulling away, and honestly how angry I was that they had lead me to believe they wanted more than they actually did! I was inspired by the alt-songwriters of the 90’s like Sheryl Crow and Aimee Mann and wanted to make a heartache anthemic sort of tune.”
Iron & Wine has collaborated with Fiona Apple on ‘All in Good Time’, which will appear on his upcoming album Light Verse. “Her voice is a miracle that sounds like both a sacrifice and a weapon at the same time,” Sam Beam said in a press release. Listen to it below.
Light Verse, Iron & Wine’s first proper album in seven years, comes out April 26 on Sub Pop. It includes the previously released single ‘You Never Know’.
Kamasi Washington has announced a new album titled Fearless Movement, which is out May 3 via Young. Following 2018’s Heaven and Earth, the 12-track LP features guest appearances from André 3000, Thundercat, George Clinton, Terrace Martin, BJ The Chicago Kid, and more. The first single, ‘Prologue’, arrives today with a music video directed by AG Rojas and choreographed by Samantha Blake Goodman. Watch and listen below.
In a press release, Washington described Fearless Movement as his dance album. “It’s not literal,” he explained. “Dance is movement and expression, and in a way it’s the same thing as music – expressing your spirit through your body. That’s what this album is pushing.”
The album finds Washington shifting his focus away from cosmic ideas and toward the everyday. “Being a father means the horizon of your life all of a sudden shows up,” he said. “My mortality became more apparent to me, but also my immortality – realizing that my daughter is going to live on and see things that I’m never going to see. I had to become comfortable with this, and that affected the music that I was making.”
Fearless Movement Cover Artwork:
Fearless Movement Tracklist:
1. Lesanu
2. Asha The First [feat. Thundercat, Taj Austin, Ras Austin]
3. Computer Love [feat. Patrice Quinn, DJ Battlecat, Brandon Coleman]
4. The Visionary [feat. Terrace Martin]
5. Get Lit [feat. George Clinton, D Smoke]
6. Dream State [feat. André 3000]
7. Together [feat. BJ the Chicago Kid]
8. The Garden Path
9. Interstellar Peace (The Last Stance)
10. Road to Self (KO)
11. Lines in the Sand
12. Prologue
Kamasi Washington 2024 Tour Dates:
May 4 – New York, NY – Beacon Theatre
May 5 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
May 7 – Toronto, QC – History
May 8 – Cincinnati, OH – Ludlow Garage
May 9 – Detroit, MI – St. Andrews Hall
May 10 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall
May 11 – St. Paul, MN – Fitzgerald Theater
May 12 – Omaha, NB – Slowdown
May 14 – Houston, TX – House of Blues Houston
May 15 – Dallas, TX – House of Blues Dallas
May 16 – San Antonio, TX – Empire Theater
May 17 – Austin, TX – Empire Garage
May 30 – Vancouver, BC – The Vogue Theatre
May 31 – Seattle, WA – The Showbox
Jun 1 – Eugene, OR – McDonald Theatre
Jun 2 – Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom
Jun 5 – Sacramento, CA – Crest Theatre
Jun 6 – Monterey, CA – Golden State Theatre
Jun 7 – San Francisco, CA – Warfield
Jun 8 – Santa Cruz, CA – The Catalyst
Jun 9 – Solana Beach, CA – Belly Up
Jun 11 – Mesa, AZ – Mesa Arts Center
Jun 16 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Bowl Jazz Fest
Jul 31 – Alexandria, VA – The Birchmere
beabadoobee has offered her contribution to Jack Antonoff’s The New Look soundtrack. She’s taken on ‘It’s Only a Paper Moon’, which was written by Harold Arlen, Yip Harburg, and Billy Rose for the 1932 Broadway musical The Great Magoo and was popularized by Ella Fitzgerald and the Delta Rhythm Boys. Take a listen below.
Adult Jazz have announced their first LP in a decade. So Sorry So Slow lands on April 26 via Spare Thought. Today’s announcement comes with the release of the new song ‘Suffer One’, which follows the recently released ‘Dusk Song’ and features a string arrangement by Owen Pallet. Check it out and find the album’s details below.
“We recorded the cello and guitar together at Konk, with no-metronome, to get a loose shifting rhythm – then spent time adding splashes of other things in the studio,” the band shared in a statement about ‘Suffer One’. “The final stage was Owen Pallett’s string arrangement, and viola + violin playing. We’ve been listening to Owen’s music since we were 15, and have always admired their songwriting so we were incredibly honoured they were up for it. The strings lent this final surge of energy that helped us feel it was done.”
They added: “The song itself is about romance and seeking connection- and the sometimes terror baked into that,” they added. “It was one of the earlier tracks the lyrics were completed on, and it ends with a bit of pathetic fallacy indulgence, which I think in hindsight teed up a lot of the conflation of the personal with the ecological in the rest of the record.”
Discussing the process behind the album, vocalist Harry Burgess said: “We started writing in 2017 and began recording in 2018. We genuinely thought it might be finished in 2018! But things kept developing and, having resolutely not struck while the iron was hot, there was no real external push to rush things after that, so we just kept letting things shift and unfold until it felt right. Listening back to my voice notes it’s nice to notice that there are fragments of ideas from the whole period 2017-2023 which have shaped the record.” He continued:
I usually have objects as kind of totems for ideas. The album initially started out to do with performance… [the totem] was a head mic, one of the subtle skin-tone ones, discreet on the forehead of a West End star. A number of the first songs in their original forms were almost musical theatre piano ballads. I think that was really a device to write about my life as the ‘main character’ (pre internet-speak reframing): regrets about romance, relationships – unsustainable relationships with the self and others.
However, once we started writing, the ideas about unsustainable personal relationships, loving unevenly and heartbreak conflated with a more expressly ecological regret. Like contending with big feelings of loss, endings, beauty, desolation, and with how much joy the earth contains in it. Feeling so much gratitude bound up in waves of sadness. Maybe witnessing a slow-motion goodbye to all that, or its last gasps. I love the earth and the life it supports so much. I love how ecosystems fit together – even the brutal stuff. It may be basic to say, but now is the time to be laser focused on that love. I was thinking about human centrality on earth, us as the ‘main character’, the way that is served by faith and romanticism, and the subsequent disingenuous understandings of our position in the ecosystem, as only stewards somehow, rather than subjects. The totems at this point: a herald’s horn, lorry inner tubes, archaeological tools. I guess from doom, industry, history respectively.
Now I would say the record is about gripping. Totems being: crampons, rope, drips, desalination equipment, accruing various survival tech. I think gripping sums up both of the threads. There’s the emotionally correct clinging to the earth that is the substrate of everything we value, or the delusional clinging to our imagined dominant position. But also the practical, technological aspects of creating a sustainable relationship, of remaining here. Then I think of romance again.
So Sorry So Slow Cover Artwork:
So Sorry So Slow Tracklist:
1. Bleat Melisma
2. Suffer One
3. y-rod
4. No Relief
5. Plenary
6. Marquee
7. Dusk Song
8. Earth of Woems
9. No Sentry
10. Ben
11. I Was Surprised
12. Windfarm
Los Angeles-based musician, producer, and visual artist Mal Not Bad has announced their debut album, This Is Your New Life. It’s due out later this year, and the new single ‘No Worries’ is out today. Check it out below.
“‘No Worries’ is this convergence of a protest song and a reflection of the difficulty of communication,” Mal Not Bad said in a statement. “I wrote it around mid-pandemic during the chaos of our previous presidency, police brutality, riots, and the pandemic itself – this constant cycle of horrible headlines and events that always exists, though the landscape/names might shift. It points to the disarray that happens when words and photos/documentation lose their power and meaning – an intense cycle that feels almost impossible to shake and can be dwindled down to everyday conversations we have with the people immediately around us. Understanding this hopefully can slow ourselves down to listen and speak with intention and patience.”
This Is Your New Life Cover Artwork:
This Is Your New Life Tracklist:
1. Far Gone
2. AP
3. No Worries
4. Cycle
5. Cycle (outro)
6. Come On/Hard Times
7. Inst II Pt. I
8. Inst II Pt. II
9. Life
10. Mustang [feat. Junaco]
11. Inst I
12. Dodgeball
Finom, the band led by Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart, formerly known as Ohmme – have announced a new album, Not God. The follow-up to 2020’s Fantasize Your Ghost is due for release on May 24 via Joyful Noise Recordings. It was produced by Jeff Tweedy in the Loft. Lead single ‘Haircut’ arrives today alongside a video directed by Alex Grelle. Check it out below, and keep scrolling for the album cover, tracklist, and the band’s upcoming tour dates.
“‘Haircut’ was written following the stream of suggested words from Macie’s phone robot,” the band explained in a statement. “Somehow this intelligence intuited that we wanted to say ‘no’ more– to control more of our own time. Alex Grelle, one of our favorite artists and collaborators, directed the video for us with a genius group of artists. We were inspired by this strange and beautiful France Gall short film that Jeff and Spencer Tweedy showed us while we were recording.”
Not God Cover Artwork:
Not God Tracklist:
1. Haircut
2. Dirty
3. Naked
4. Hungry
5. Not God
6. A Petunia
7. Cyclops
8. Cardinal
9. As You Are
Finom 2024 Tour Dates:
Wed March 6 – Tokyo, JP – Ex Theater &
Thu March 7 – Tokyo, JP – Zepp Haneda &
Fri March 8 – Osaka, JP – Hatch &
Sat March 9 – Kyoto, JP – UrBANGUILD
Sun March 24 – Knoxville, TN – Big Ears Festival
Wed April 10 – Milwaukee, WI – VENUE? *
Thu April 11 – Minneapolis, MN – VENUE? *
Fri Apr 12 – Northfield, MN – Carleton College
Fri May 24 – Chicago, IL – The Hideout
Fri May 31 – Brooklyn, NY – The Sultan Room
Wed Jun 5 – Los Angeles, CA – Zebulon
Phosphorescent has shared ‘Impossible House’, a new single from his upcoming album Revelator. It follows the title track, which came out in January. Along with the release, Matthew Houck has also announced his first UK tour in six years. Check out a video for the track and see the list of dates below.
Revelator, Phosphorescent’s debut for Verve/Decca Records, is due for release on April 5.
Phosphorescent 2024 Tour Dates:
18 Aug 18 – Stockholm, SE – Debaser – Stockholm Roots
19 Aug 19 – Olso, NO – Cosmopolite Scene
20 Aug 20- Gothenburg, SE – Pustervik
21 Aug 21 – Tønder, DK – Tønder Festival
22 Aug 22 – Tønder, DK – Tønder Festival
24 Aug 24 – Berlin, DE – Frannz Club
25 Aug 25 – Utrecht, NL – Tivolivredenburg Pandora Hall
26 Aug 26 – Antwerp, BE – OLT Rivierenhof
27 Aug 27 – London – Koko
28 Aug 28 – Leeds – Brudenell Social Club
29 Aug 29 – Dublin – Whelan’s
31 Aug 31 – Larmer Tree Gardens – End of the Road Festival
Sam Evian has dropped a new single, ‘Stay’, from his forthcoming LP Plunge. It follows the previously released tracks ‘Rollin’ In’ and ‘Wild Days’. Check out a lyric video for it below.
“‘Stay’ is just one of those tunes that came out all at once. I pulled it out of a 12 string acoustic I bought at a yard sale in Woodstock,” Evian said in a statement. “It’s like it had been sitting there for years waiting to play those chords. At the time I was really obsessed with the acoustic guitar and drum sounds on the Kinks’ record Lola Versus Powerman…, so I was likely subconsciously aiming for that kind of thing.”
Liverpool duo King Hannah have announced the follow-up to their 2022 debut LP I’m Not Sorry, I Was Just Being Me. It’s called Big Swimmer, and it arrivees May 31 via City Slang. Produced by Ali Chant, the album features Sharon Van Etten on two songs, including the title track, which is out today. Check out a video for it below, and scroll down for Big Swimmer‘s cover art and tracklist, as well as the band’s upcoming tour dates.
“I remember sitting at my desk and the song just came pouring out and the big swimmer metaphor instantly felt right; to never give up on whatever it is you’re swimming hard towards,” vocalist Hannah Merrick said in a statement. “But I like that it questions the listener too, that whenever you’re faced with something challenging, do you carry on swimming or do you jump out and grab our towel? There’s no right answer, but it feels empowering and necessary for the record.”
1. Big Swimmer [feat. Sharon Van Etten]
2. New York, Let’s Do Nothing
3. The Mattress
4. Milk Boy (I Love You)
5. Suddenly, Your Hand
6. Somewhere Near El Paso
7. Lily Pad
8. Davey Says
9. Scully
10. This Wasn’t Intentional [feat. Sharon Van Etten]
11. John Prine On The Radio
King Hannah 2024 Tour Dates:
May 15 – 18 – Brighton, UK – The Great Escape
Aug 30 – Dorset, UK – End of the Road
Sep 5 – Berlin, DE – Lido
Sep 9 – Amsterdam, NL – Paradiso
Sep 12 – Paris, FR – La Maroquinerie
Sep 13 – Brussels, BE – AB Club: Brussels
Sep 25 – London, UK – Rich Mix
