Sinead O’Brien has shared a new single called ‘There Are Good Times Coming’, taken from her forthcoming debut album Time Bend and Break The Bower. Check out its Chloé le Drezen-directed video below.
Talking about the new song, O’Brien said in a press release:
It’s a hyper real, close-up look at the surroundings of this place, and a glance to the horizon. Mundane observations weave in and around concepts of RITUALS, MANIFESTATIONS, INTENTIONS. A mantra anchors me as I spin and fall in an alternate space.
Watch the ripple effect of things play out; life, ideas, episodes. A subtle movement makes the biggest tremors.
There are moments where the music is sparse and the lyrics hang around a while. It’s a strange space, warmth and coolness in the air. Full moon, dogs barking in the distance and an empty railway station.
‘There Are Good Times Coming’ is not a dream, it’s a restless night.
Boston-based slowcore trio Horse Jumper of Love have announced a new LP called Natural Part, sharing a video for the new single ‘I Poured Sugar In Your Shoes’. The follow-up to 2019’s So Divine is out June 17 via Run For Cover Records. Check out the new single, album cover and tracklist, as well as the band’s upcoming tour dates below.
The band recorded Natural Part with engineer Bradford Kriege at his Rhode Island studio, Big Nice. “I definitely don’t write the same way I did for the other records anymore,” guitarist/vocalist Dimitri Giannopoulos explained in a statement. “I never want to force anything or try to stick to a formula, and for this record I really felt like I could do whatever I wanted. I feel like I know myself a little more, like I’m a little more tapped into who I am and the songs feel more personal because of it.”
Natural Part Cover Artwork:
Natural Part Tracklist:
1. Snakeskin
2. Ding Dong Ditch
3. I Poured Sugar In Your Shoes
4. The Natural Part
5. Under The House
6. Sitting On The Porch At Night
7. Chariots
8. I Put A Crown On You
9. Mask
10. Velcro
11. Bucket of Gold
Horse Jumper of Love 2022 Tour Dates:
Apr 20 Washington, DC – The Black Cat *
Apr 21 Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg *
Apr 24 Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg *
Apr 25 Boston, MA – Royale *
Apr 27 Portsmouth, NH – Press Room *
Apr 28 South Burlington, VT – Higher Ground *
Apr 29 Hamden, CT – Space Ballroom *
Apr 30 Woodstock, NY – Colony
May 2 Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer *
May 17 Brooklyn, NY – Baby’s Alright
Jul 7 Richmond, VA – The Camel ~ !
Jul 8 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle Back Room ~ !
Jul 9 Columbia, SC – New Brookland Tavern ~ !
Jul 10 Atlanta, GA – Masquerade – Purgatory ~ !
Jul 12 New Orleans, LA – Saturn Bar ~ !
Jul 13 Denton, TX – Rubber Gloves ~ !
Jul 15 Austin, TX – The Parish ~ !
Jul 16 San Antonio, TX – Paper Tiger ~ !
Jul 18 Phoenix, AZ – Rebel Lounge ~ +
Jul 19 San Diego, CA – Soda Bar ~ +
Jul 21 Los Angeles, CA – El Cid ~ +
Jul 22 San Francisco, CA – Bottom of the Hill ~ +
Jul 23 Sacramento, CA – Starlet Room ~ +
Jul 24 Reno, NV – Holland Project ~ +
Jul 28 Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios ~ +
Jul 29 Seattle, WA – Vera Project +
Jul 30 Boise, ID – Neurolux +
Aug 1 Denver, CO – Hi-Dive
Aug 4 St Louis, MO 0 The Sinkhole % ^
Aug 5 Chicago, IL – Beat Kitchen % ^
Aug 7 Cleveland, OH – Mahall’s % ^
Aug 9 Toronto, ON – The Baby G % ^
Aug 10 Montreal, QC – La Sala Rossa % ^
Aug 11 Portland, ME – SPACE % ^
* w/ Indigo De Souza
~ w/ Strange Ranger
! w/ They Are Gutting A Body Of Water
+ w/ Cryogeyser
% w/ Babehoven
^ w/ Sadurn
Pavement are celebrating the 30th anniversary of their debut album Slanted & Enchanted with a new reissue. It’s set to come out on August 12 via Matador and will include a replica of the original demo cassette the band used to share the record’s material with prospective record labels, titled Courting Shutdown Offers. In addition, Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus and Spiral Stairs will be speaking with host Matt Sweeney for a new episode of The Matador Revisionist History Podcast.
Earlier this month, Pavement released the deluxe edition of their 1999 LP Terror Twilight, which featured 28 previously unreleased tracks. They’re set to head out on a reunion tour across North America and Europe, kicking off with a set at Barcelona’s Primavera Sound on June 2.
Courting Shutdown Offers Tracklist:
1. Chesley’s Little Wrists
2. Jackals, False Grails: The Lonesome Era
3. No Life Signed Her
4. Two States
5. Trigger Cut
6. Fame Throwa
7. Pain Smiles
8. The Wounded Kite
9. Summer Babe
10. Perfume-V
11. My First Mine
12. Baptist Blacktick
13. Loretta’s Scars
14. Pillowjack
15. Here
Bartees Strange has announced his new album and first since signing with 4AD. It’s called Farm to Table, and it lands on June 17. Today’s announcement comes with the release of the new single ‘Cosigns’, which is accompanied by a Pooneh Ghana-directed video. The song, which name-checks the likes of Bon Iver, Phoebe Bridgers, Courtney Barnett, and Lucy Dacus, ends with a poem that Strange wrote in his early 20s. Check it out below, and scroll down for the album cover and tracklist.
Farm to Table will follow the Washington, D.C. artist’s 2020’s Live Forever. The LP features the previously shared single ‘Heavy Heart’.
Farm to Table Cover Artwork:
Farm to Table Tracklist:
1. Heavy Heart
2. Mullholland Dr
3. Wretched
4. Cosigns
5. Tours
6. Hold The Line
7. We Were Only Close For Like Two Weeks
8. Escape This Circus
9. Black Gold
10. Hennessy
“U.D.I.D’ started as a whisper over a finger-picked acoustic guitar part, high up on the neck with a capo in an alternate tuning,” Roy explained in a press release. “I had just had a phone call with a person I love that left me heartbroken, and I confessed to myself and my dog that maybe that phone call was the final straw, maybe I do have to really say bye to them. So I got high and put on Hellraiser (for the second time that evening..idk what was going on there) and decided to try on what it would be like to really just give up on them.”
She continued: “It’s the only point on the record where I actually can’t find the humour or optimism present in other songs. When it comes to my love for this person, who can’t quite meet me halfway, I am not wise or funny or clever. I am nervous and pissed. The chorus lyrics, “I always want you near, but I’m starting to get the deal, if u don’t dare I don’t dare” are admittedly words I’d rather not say. And honestly, it’s an empty threat anyways, because the truth is I will always take that dare, I’ll always want to try.”
Editors have returned with a new single called ‘Heart Attack’. Along with the track, they’ve announced that Blanck Mass, aka experimental electronic producer Benjamin John Power, has joined the band as a full-time member. Check out director Felix Geen‘s video for ‘Heart Attack’ below.
“Heart Attack is a song of obsession, about losing yourself in someone, a love song, a morbid love song,” vocalist Tom Smith explained n a statement.
Commenting on the video, Geen said: “Typically when I’m making a music video I try to tune myself into the song and find the visual that resonates the loudest. More recently I’ve been working with AI generated art in my videos. It is a relatively new technology but its development is accelerating all the time. The full potential for it to completely revolutionise the visual creation process is yet to be seen. I currently think of working with the AI as a collaboration with a mad auteur who’s taken too much LSD. It is certainly quite interesting to be taken on a psychedelic journey by a computer who’s seen too much.”
Benjamin John Power previously provided additional production on Editors’ sixth album, 2018’s Violence. “Having worked with the band for coming up to five years now, joining Editors seemed more like a natural progression than a decision that had to be made,” he said. “We know that we work well together, are on a similar page creatively, and are all very close friends. Being part of a ‘creative conglomerate’ is something that I haven’t experienced for a while now so to be part of something that works in that way again is both liberating and exciting in equal measures.”
BATTS, the project of Melbourne-based artist Tanya Batt, has shared a new song called ‘Blue’. It features Sharon Van Etten, with whom she toured Australia in 2019. Check it out below.
“It’s a huge honour to write and create with Sharon – someone who has carved such a powerful path in this industry and remains so kind and humble, a truly special human,” Batt said in a statement. “I started writing Blue when I was staying with my Mother-in-Law and watching a lot of Antiques Roadshow.”
“I picked up my guitar to try and write a song that would feel like if Shaz or I played it solo it would feel authentically either of ours – I was in the depths of grief at the time and when Blue started to write itself, it clearly reflected how I was feeling,” she continued. “Sharon sent her verse over and the first time I listened to it was such a moment. She just got it, her lyrics were perfectly in keeping with it all. She absolutely completed it. It holds a very special place in my heart.”
Sharon Van Etten added:
I got to meet Tanya before I ever got to see her perform live, and she was a bright huge light who wanted to let everyone in and it only let her light shine even more. When I actually got to hear her sing, I was taken to another time, another place that she coloured for me. Helping me step out of myself and feel another soul’s journey. I felt quite grounded and comforted in her essence and all who surrounded her. So it felt quite natural to want to feel included in this group hug that I could tell she was nurturing with everyone around her.
She asked me to be a part of this beautiful song and there was no way I was going to say no. To be able to write in real time a response to what she was feeling from the other side of the world felt important and her delivery made it even more so. The blue isn’t so blue when her blue runs into your own.
‘Blue’ marks BATTS’ first new music since her 2019 album The Grand Tour. Sharon Van Etten recently announced her latest LP, We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong.
London-based producers Loraine James and TSVI have announced a new collaborative EP titled 053, set for release on May 13 via AD93. To accompany the announcement, they’ve shared two tracks from the project: ‘Observe’ and ‘Trust’. Check them out below.
The EP was recorded during a two-week period while the pair were living together and sharing a studio in East London. “Each track name and the EP as a whole represents our state of mind and shared feelings at that current time during isolation,” TSVI explained in a statement. “We lived together in a warehouse space in Hackney Wick. We made those tracks during the last part of the lockdown. We’d go to my studio with no pressure to make anything.”
Since releasing her 2021 album Reflections, Loraine James issued her debut self-titled album under the Whatever the Weather moniker earlier this month.
Yawners, the alias of Madrid musician Elena Nieto, has shared a new track from her forthcoming album Duplo. ‘Honey’ follows previous single ‘Rivers Cuomo’ and comes alongside the announcement of a UK and EU tour. Check out the single as well as Yawners’ upcoming tour dates below.
“I wrote this song in English, then in Spanish, then I forgot about it, and finally brought it back in hybrid form in both languages,” Nieto explained in a statement. “It’s a love song, everyone from any corner of the world can identify with it and that’s why I like that it’s in two languages. Because the message is universal. It’s about when two people like each other but they’re playing the ‘I don’t like you game’. It’s kinda fun to play but if you play too much, you screw it up.”
Duplo, the follow-up to Yawners’ 2019 debut LP Just Calm Down, arrives on May 6 via Big Scary Monsters.
XVOTO, the London-based duo comprised of Jazz Alonso and HMLTD guitarist/producer Saigon Fury, have dropped a new single called ‘Catacumbas’ (via One Two Many). Check out its music video below.
“Catacumbas is a comic strip about a girl who, having moved on from her ex boyfriend, sees him as a zombie trapped in the past,” XVOTO explained in a press release. “She taunts him and keeps renouncing him, insisting that they’ll only ever see each other again in the catacombs (Catacumbas) e.g. when they’re dead. We shot the video in Scicli, Sicily, an area full of catacombs, caves and abandoned churches. It’s primarily a performance video of us taking over the town. We tried to contrast rustic Mediterranean life with our cartoonish visuals.”
