Big Thief have released their new double album, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, via 4AD. The band previewed the 20-track LP with seven singles, including ‘Simulation Swarm’, ‘Time Escaping’, ‘Little Things’, ‘Change’, ‘Certainty’, ‘No Reason’, and ‘Spud Infinity’. Adrianne Lenker, Max Oleartchik, Buck Meek, and James Krivchenia recorded it in four different locations, working with Sam Evian in Upstate New York, Shawn Everett in Topanga Canyon, Dom Monks in the Rocky Mountains, and Scott McMicken in Tucson, Arizona. “One of the things that bonds us together as a band is pure magic,” Lenker said in a statement. “I think we all have the same guide and none of us have ever spoken what it is because we couldn’t name it, but somehow, we are all going for the same thing, and when we hit it… we all know it’s it, but none of us to this day, or maybe ever, will be able to articulate in words what the ‘it’ is. Something about it is magic to me.”
Spoon have returned with their tenth studio album, Lucifer on the Sofa, which is out now via Matador. The follow-up to 2017’s Hot Thoughts was co-produced by Spoon and Mark Rankin (Adele, Queens of the Stone Age) and includes contributions from Dave Fridmann and Justin Raisen. In press materials, frontman Britt Daniel described the new LP as “the sound of classic rock as written by a guy who never did get Eric Clapton.” Lucifer on the Sofa was preceded by the singles ‘The Hardest Cut’ and ‘Wild’, and ‘My Babe’.
Empath’s sophomore full-length, Visitor, has arrived via Fat Possum. Following the Philadelphia quartet’s 2019 debut Active Listening: Night on Earth, the album includes the previously released tracks ‘Born 100 Times’, ‘Diamond Eyelids’, ‘Passing Stranger’, and ‘Elvis Comeback Special’ and was recorded with producer Jake Portrait (of Unknown Mortal Orchestra), making it the first time they’ve worked together in a formal studio. Reflecting on the album’s cover art, photographed by Andrew Emond, singer Catherine Elicson said: “The spaces look lived in and altered by humans but no humans are present. The songs are similar in the sense that they talk about the ‘space’ between people. They’re not about specific people per se, but they illustrate the feelings people leave between each other, these subjective experiences. You can think of Visitor as a soundtrack to the memories and feelings that remain in places people have left behind.” Read our Artist Spotlight interview with Empath.
Shamir has put out his latest LP, Heterosexuality, via AntiFragile Music. The follow-up to Shamir’s 2020 self-titled record features the previously unveiled singles ‘Gay Agenda’, ‘Cisgender’, and ‘Reproductive’, and was produced by Hollow Comet (aka Strange Ranger’s Isaac Eiger). “His sound was something that honestly I was dreaming up in my head,” Shamir said in a statement. “But couldn’t find someone who could do it, nor could I do it myself. When I finally heard his work, I just thought… what the fuck, I finally found it.” Commenting on the album’s themes, he added: “I think this album is me finally acknowledging my trauma. Everyone knows I’ve been through so much shit and I kind of just rammed through, without really acknowledging the actual trauma that I do feel on almost a daily basis.”
claire rousay and more eaze have today issued their new album, Never Stop Texting Me, via Orange Milk. It follows two projects the artists collaborated on last year – their joint album an afternoon whine and rousay’s sometimes i feel like i have no friends – and includes contributions from Bloodzboi and How to Dress Well. According to the album’s press bio, “Mari and Claire share an equal amount of duties on the record, rendering it a pure representation of their collaborative work. The appeal of this record is the assertive pop blending w Robert Ashley like moments which simultaneously satiates the desire to hear structure and the abstract.” The duo shared a pair of tracks, ‘same’ and ‘hands’, ahead of the release.
Pearl Jam leader Eddie Vedder has a new solo album out today called Earthling. Released via Seattle Surf/Republic, it marks his first solo effort in 11 years, following 2011’s Ukulele Songs. The album features guest appearances from Stevie Wonder, Ringo Starr, and Elton John, as well as contributions from Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, former RHCP guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, co-producer Andrew Watt on guitars, Pino Palladino on bass, and Glen Hansard on guitars and backing vocals. The singles ‘Long Way’, ‘The Haves’, and ‘Brother the Cloud’ preceded the record.
Don’t Talk to Me is the debut album by Dropper, the Brooklyn-based outfit led by multi-instrumentalist Andrea Scanniello alongside longtime collaborators Jono Bernstein, Yukary Morishima, and Larry Scanniello. Out today via the band’s own Dirt Dog label, the album was produced by Andrija Tokic at Nashville’s Bomb Shelter studio and mastered by engineer Heba Kadry. According to a press release, Dropper make music for: “People who have worked in the service industry too long and become curmudgeons at the ripe old age of 26. People who are lonely yet want to be left alone. People who drink because they are sad but also sad because they drink. Bisexuals with crumbs in their bed. Optimistic pessimists. Those with seasonal allergies. But overwhelmingly for people who, in lieu of being crushed by the eternal weight of existence, choose to scream internally with a smile upon their face.”
Ride’s Andy Bell has released a new solo album, Flicker, via Sonic Cathedral. The 18-track LP marks the guitarist and songwriter’s first solo release since 2020’s The View From Halfway Down Talking. Talking about the new record in a statement, Bell explained: “When I think about Flicker, I see it as closure. Most literally, on a half-finished project from over six years ago, but also on a much bigger timescale. Some of these songs date back to the ’90s and the cognitive dissonance of writing brand new lyrics over songs that are 20-plus years old makes it feel like it is, almost literally, me exchanging ideas with my younger self.”
alt-J are back with their fourth album, The Dream, which is out now via Canvasback/Infectious Music. The 12-track effort follows 2017’s Relaxer and was previewed with the singles ‘Hard Drive Gold’, ‘U&ME’, ‘Get Better’, and ‘The Actor’. “If there was ever going to be a world event that made us finally write a song about real life, it would be the pandemic,” lead vocalist and guitarist Joe Newman said in an interview with NME. “But crucially, I feel like we’re relaxing into accepting the fact that we can actually write songs about the real world, and we’re now allowing ourselves to go there. If people are still listening to our music in 30 years time, I’d love for them to think, ‘Alt-J did something really special on their fourth album. They really brought themselves into it.’”
Other albums out today:
SeaPower, Everything Was Forever; Raveena, Asha’s Awakening; Lady Pills, What I Want; Trentemøller, Memoria; Mary J. Blige, Good Morning Gorgeous; Adam Miller, Gateway; Cult of Luna, The Long Road North; Joywave, Cleanse; Frank Turner; FTHC; Foxes, The Kick; The Cactus Blossoms, One Day.
For twenty-two years, the beloved quartet Animal Collective (though sometimes as only a trio or duo) have made songs about wonder: vibrant fantasies built on dream logic. It’s music of wide-eyed affection, wrapped in intricate psychedelic textures. The songs are usually about little things, like fruit or grass, and composed with a childlike synthesis of playfulness and sincerity. Though each of their albums is dramatically different from the last, all of Animal Collective’s music centers around a devotion to dreams and wonder. Yet what happens when the dreamers grow older? And what happens when they come to terms with the anthropocene: nature stripped of its once transcendental power, now at the mercy of humankind? Time Skiffs, the latest record from a now middle-aged Animal Collective, is a work about reaching this acceptance through tenderness, rather than surrendering to bitterness. Though the group sounds older and more grounded than ever, there’s no shred of disenchantment.
Each prior Animal Collective album emerged as a singular vision: not always successful, but undeniably ambitious. Many of the albums grew from a clear conceptual framework. Strawberry Jam, for instance, was born from vocalist and drummer Panda Bear’s question: what if we made an album that sounds how strawberry jam looks? On Feels, their greatest and most dynamic record, the guitars were all tuned to the out-of-tune pitches of an old grand piano, providing a uniformly off-pitch sound. Time Skiffs, however, is largely devoid of gimmickry. These are laidback songs: still unique, yet confident enough in their songwriting to flow at their own pace. In other words, they have nothing to prove.
While Animal Collective’s music often wrestles between poles of ethereal softness and grand catharsis, Time Skiffs is notably subdued. A complete 180 from the summery pop tunes of 2016’s Painting With (an album as lush as it was grating), Time Skiffs focuses on how its songs build and fizzle out. Undeniably, there’s a certain redundancy to their structure. Most songs, especially the longer ones, begin with patterings of sound which slowly morph into controlled pop production with infectious melodies, and then peter out into an ambient decay. Slowness is at the foundation of Time Skiffs. Little is abrupt; almost everything is gradual. However, that’s not to imply the album is devoid of a pulse. Early tracks like ‘Prestor John’ or ‘Strung with Everything’ are lively tunes, embellished with Animal Collective’s signature harmonies, Panda Bear’s dynamic drumming, and, in the case of ‘Prestor John’, even a hurdy-gurdy solo. Yet the progressions in these songs are slow and content to let musical phrases repeat and grow familiar.
This new, subdued Animal Collective sound is poignant because it embodies the ethos of our era. Time Skiffs is replete with questions of existential uncertainty. “How are we doin’ now?” and “how are we gonna know?” Panda Bear sings on ‘Car Keys’—lines written ostensibly about a stolen set of keys that also speak to a universal uncertainty. Like their audiovisual album Tangerine Reef, Time Skiffs gestures towards a harrowing future brought on by the ravages of climate change. ‘Dragon Slayer’, the opening track, even describes a blazing inferno and its relationship to a surrounding ecosystem of water and avian life. Though the album is never depressing, it’s also never as rapturous as Animal Collective’s music once was. Instead, it makes a claim for calmness and compassion in the face of disaster.
Not everything on Time Skiffs works. ‘We Go Back’ is a noisier foray into a jumbled sound that the rest of Time Skiffs avoids. The song’s individual sounds (including autotuned vocals, a rarity for the group) are compelling tidbits with potential, but they never truly interact with each other. ‘We Go Back’ is disconnected and jarring amidst the rest of the album’s coherence. Contrastingly, the final song, ‘Royal and Desire’, is as mellow as the album gets. It’s soft and swaying, yet disappointingly dry in composition and production, especially compared to the idiosyncratic embellishments which bless the rest of album. Yet even with its inconsistencies, Time Skiffs is a fascinating evolution of a band that always moves forward, no matter how uncertain the future becomes.
Ian McDonald, best known as the co-founder of King Crimson and Foreigner, has died at the age of 75. No cause of death was revealed, but a spokesperson for McDonald said that he “passed away peacefully on February 9, 2022 in his home in New York City, surrounded by his family.”
McDonald was born in 1946 in Osterley, Middlesex, England. He served five years in the British Army, becoming a junior bandsman, and later a bandsman, while learning to read music and play the clarinet, saxophone, and flute. He went on to collaborate with Giles, Giles & Fripp, a trio featuring fellow Crimson co-founders Robert Fripp and Michael Giles, and McDonald’s jazz background influenced the early King Crimson sound; a part he wrote for the army band titled ‘Three Score and Four’ would be integrated into the midsection of ’21st Century Schizoid Man’. On the progressive band’s 1969 debut, In the Court of the Crimson King, McDonald contributed saxophone, flute, clarinet, Mellotron, harpsichord, piano, organ, and vibraphone, as well as backing vocals and production. “Ian’s contribution to King Crimson was invaluable and profound,” read a statement on the website for the band’s record label, Discipline Global Mobile.
In the 1970s, McDonald co-founded Foreigner with Mick Jones, Lou Gramm, Dennis Elliott, Al Greenwood, and Ed Gagliardi. He sang and played various instruments including rhythm guitar, woodwinds, and keys on the outfit’s first three albums – Foreigner (1977), Double Vision (1978), and Head Games (1979), all of which made the Top 10. In the following years, he continued his work as a session musician, playing with the likes of T. Rex, Steve Hackett, and Asia. In 2002, he reunited with former King Crimson bandmate Michael Giles in the 21st Century Schizoid Band, and appeared live with Foreigner’s surviving original members in 2017 and 2018.
Of his time in King Crimson, McDonald told Rolling Stone in 2019: “We were a good band, what can I say? It was really interesting music, and the live shows were a lot of fun. The improvisations, we just used to go off in really weird places and we’d support each other… We trusted each other.”
Fivio Foreign has teamed up with Kanye West and Alicia Keys on a new song called ‘City of Gods’, which is set to appear on Fivio’s debut album B.I.B.L.E. The record, executive produced by Ye, drops on March 25. Give ‘City of Gods’ a listen below.
‘City of Gods’ is dedicated to Fivio’s late friend Tahjay “T Dott” Dobson. In a statement, Fivio said: “T Dot. That’s my baby boy. I never thought I’d be doing this without you here with me. You supposed to be here with me but you gon always be the Prince in the City of Gods. Your name will forever live through me. Long Live Prince T Dot.”
In his verse, Kanye seems to address his beef with Pete Davidson, who is reportedly dating Kim Kardashian. “This afternoon, a hundred goons pullin’ up to SNL/ When I pull up, it’s dead on arrival,” he sings. The track follows his appearance on ‘Eazy’, which included the line: “God saved me from that crash, just so I could beat Pete Davidson’s ass.”
In related news, West recently said that he won’t play Coachella until fellow headliner Billie Eilish apologized for what some interpreted as a slight against Travis Scott, who the rapper said is set to join him at the festival. Earlier this week, Eilish stopped her concert at State Farm Arena in Atlanta and told the crowd “I wait for people to be OK before I keep going” when a fan needed an inhaler.
Orville Peck has announced his second album, Bronco. The 15-track LP is being released in three chapters before it comes out in full on April 8 via Columbia. The first installment, which includes the songs ‘C’mon Baby, Cry’, ‘Daytona Sand’, ‘Outta Time’, and ‘Any Turn’, is out today. Listen and check out the Austin Peters-directed video ‘C’mon Baby, Cry’ below.
Bronco will follow Peck’s 2019 album Pony as well as his 2020 Show Pony EP. “This is my most impassioned and authentic album to date,” Peck said in a statement. “I was inspired by country rock, ’60s & ’70s psychedelic, California, and even bluegrass with everything being anchored in country. Bronco is all about being unrestrained and the culmination of a year of touring, writing in isolation and going through and ultimately emerging from a challenging personal time.”
Bronco Cover Artwork:
Bronco Tracklist:
1. Daytona Sand
2. The Curse of the Blackened Eye
3. Outta Time
4. Lafayette
5. C’mon Baby, Cry
6. Iris Rose
7. Kalahari Down
8. Bronco
9. Trample Out the Days
10. Blush
11. Hexie Mountains
12. Let Me Drown
13. Any Turn
14. City of Gold
15. All I Can Say
Nicki Minaj and Lil Baby have followed up their recent single ‘Do We Have a Problem?’ with a new collaboration called ‘Bussin’. Listen to it below.
‘Do We Have a Problem?’ arrived last week alongside an accompanying visual co-starring Joseph Sikora and Cory Hardrict; the Benny Boom-directed clip hinted that there might be more music to come.
Nicki Minaj’s most recent album, Queen, came out in 2018. Lil Baby released a collaboration with Lil Durk, The Voice of the Heroes, last year.
Colin Stetson composed the score for David Blue Garcia’s update of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which will premiere on Netflix next week. The soundtrack is set to arrive on February 18 via Milan Records, the same day the film hits the platform, and the new track ‘Every Last One’ is out now. Give it a listen below.
“That score was genre-exclusionary and abstract,” Stetson said in a new interview with Variety, referring to Wayne Bell’s score for Tobe Hooper’s 1974 original. “It was trying to divorce itself from the shackles of the score and sound design to enter a new space. I knew it would be an opportunity to go as far as I wanted in searching for the musical score.”
Colin Stetson released three soundtracks in 2020: Color Out of Space (More Music From the Motion Picture),The War Show, and Deliver Us. In 2018, he composed the score for Ari Aster’s Hereditary.
Taylor Swift has teamed up with Ed Sheeran for a new version of his = (equals) song ‘The Joker and the Queen’. Check out its accompanying video below, and scroll down for the single artwork
Swift and Sheeran first joined forces on ‘Everything Has Changed’, off 2012’s Red. Last year, Sheeran featured on the re-recorded versions of ‘Everything Has Changed’ and ‘Run (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)’.
Empath have been conjuring some breathless combination of beauty and chaos since the very beginning. The band was formed when drummer Garrett Koloski and keyboardist Emily Shanahan left Syracuse, New York and moved into a communal punk house in Philadelphia with vocalist Catherine Elicson, and the trio started jamming in the basement as soon as they became friends; synth player Randall Coon rounded out the lineup shortly after. Coming up in the city’s thriving D.I.Y. scene, Empath released Crystal Reality Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, a 13-minute collection of fuzzy, lo-fi noise-punk songs, in 2016, followed by 2018’s exhilarating Liberating Guilt and Fear EP.
The band’s debut album, Active Listening: Night on Earth, arrived in 2019, showcasing their uniquely defiant, downright anarchic approach to fusing harsh noise with frantically high-speed rhythms and ambient meditations. But an unmistakable catchiness and clarity somehow always shone through the mix, both qualities that are heightened on their sophomore effort, Visitor, which they worked on with producer Jake Portrait (of Unknown Mortal Orchestra) in a formal studio for the first time. Out tomorrow via Fat Possum, it’s a phenomenal record that reflects the unpredictable ways in which Empath construct a song, which can take a long time to reach its final form and continues to evolve relentlessly in the mind of the listener. Its fervent evocations of the past can feel as poignant as they are disorienting, but any feelings of displacement and disorder are balanced out by the indelible, ecstatic energy that drives the songs forward.
We caught up with Empath for this edition of our Artist Spotlight interview series to talk about what connects them as a group, the process of making their new album Visitor, and more.
We’re about a month away from the release of the album. How are you all feeling?
Catherine Elicson: It’s been such a long campaign, we started releasing singles in September. Part of me just wants to get it over with and release the record.
Garrett Koloski: Yeah, I’m like, is it ever coming out?
Jem Shanahan: We’re ready to give birth to this thing.
GK: I forgot the first single was in September, that’s so fucking long ago. I can’t tell if time flies or if it’s standing still, though.
JS: I think it’s both.
Are you happy with the response to the singles so far?
JS: Yeah, I feel like people are liking it, I feel good about it.
GK: For sure. It’s nice to put new stuff out and people to be like, “This is cool.” And you’re like, “Okay, yeah, it is cool.”
Garrett, I noticed two things while I was doing research for this interview: one was in your Rolling Stone feature from last year and the other was in the track-by-track for the album. It’s mentioned that your dad said that you can finally hear Catherine’s vocals, and your mom said that that the track ‘V’ should be in a nature documentary. I wonder if you take into account how people in your life who aren’t necessarily part of the music community react to your songs.
GK: I feel like it’s interesting. Your parents’ perspective doesn’t really matter, but it’s just funny what they think, you know what I mean? [laughter] But that is true. Catherine’s vocals, I think they’re a fucking masterpiece on this record.
CE: Thank you.
GK: [coughs] I didn’t mean it. But everything we do everything is usually so rushed, but this time we actually took the time to do stuff. And also, I wish that every song we have ever written could be on a nature documentary. I wish that about every song. But it’s funny showing your parents and that’s their takeaway. I was like, “Okay, that’s cool. I hear that.”
CE: Also, your dad’s favourite song was the fastest one, ‘Corner of Surprise’.
GK: Yeah. It was funny, when we picked all the singles with Fat Possum, we were torn between doing ‘80s’ and ‘Elvis Comeback Special’ as the last single. And we sent the record to some of our friends to help choose between ‘80s’ or ‘Elvis’, and it’s funny because my dad was like, ‘Corner of Surprise’. I was like, “No, that’s not…”
CE: [laughs] That’s not in the mix.
GK: He’s like, “That’s my favourite song.” I was like, “That’s fucking hilarious that you’re like a 60-year-old man picking the fastest song as your favourite song.”
CE: It was hard to pick singles, and I feel like the more we asked people what they thought, the more confusing it became. Because it didn’t narrow anything down. Everyone said a different song, which was cool in a different way, but also it just made us more lost. [laughs] That’s the hardest thing because I’m very bad at picking singles, I’m so biased towards every song.
GK: Yeah, same. I’m like, “Every song is a fucking single, what do you mean?” Honestly, I feel like going into it, Catherine and I were talking, like, now we have Fat Possum, they’ll pick out all the singles. And they didn’t. They were like, “What songs do you think the singles would be?” And we’re like, “Oh, we’re fucked.”
CE: “We thought you would know.”
GK: “Isn’t that your thing?” [laughs] I feel like all we knew was ‘Diamond Eyelids’ will be a single. And they’re like, “Well, you need three other ones,” and we’re like, “Aw, fuck.”
I read that for your earliest demos, you apparently used a USB mic from Rock Band. Did you ever actually play the game together?
JS: I don’t think we have.
CE: I don’t think I played that since I was in high school, but I used to love it.
GK: Me too.
CE: Why did we have a microphone from Rock Band?
GK: I have no idea. Wasn’t I just obsessed with recording everything on my iPad? And I had that weird adapter that was like the charger to USB, because the GarageBand one was just a USB mic.
CE: Well, the only thing we had to record was GarageBand on your iPad.
JS: Did we have Rock Band at our old apartment?
GK: I think so. Jem, we totally played Rock Band together. Also, I could never play the drums on Rock Band.
CE: That was my favourite thing to do.
JS: Yeah, me too.
GK: That’s funny. I was just obsessed with playing guitar out of Rock Band. You want what you can’t have or whatever.
Can you think of a memory that you can share of feeling connected not just to each other individually, but to the group, to Empath as something you could devote your time to?
JS: I feel like the times I feel most connected is when we’re eating together, like cooking a meal together. Which is funny because it’s not always music stuff that makes me feel connected with everybody.
CE: I feel like when we’re locked away recording something is usually my favourite part and when I feel the most like we’re in the creative zone, thinking collectively.
GK: Yeah, I feel like that’s why we always like going to a cabin or whatever to record. You’re really in it. I’m trying to think back to the early days stuff. I feel like when we were recording that, I just remember all you laying in your bed and you doing vocals on top, just yelling.
CE: Nothing was isolated. We didn’t have any monitor headphones.
GK: [laughs] We were like, “No, no, that’s cool. We’ll make that work.” It was really fun.
CE: Wait, we didn’t use the Rock Band microphone for that. We just sang into the iPad mic.
GK: Yeah, what did we use the mic for?
CE: I had a Zoom recorder that we recorded the drums and guitar together. I don’t really remember.
GK: Damn, I guess we’re fucking liars.
JS: No, we definitely used it.
It’s something that existed, at least.
CE: I don’t remember.
GK: I don’t remember either. Damn, time fucking flies. But yeah, anytime we eat together, that’s always my favourite part.
CE: Those are great times. I think recording the first things just in our house, the three of us lived together, it just kind of felt like what we would do when we were hanging out because we didn’t have that many friends outside of our house yet, because we had just moved to Philly.
Oh, Randall has just joined. Hello?
Randall Coon: Hey. I’m on your porch, Garrett.
GK: Oh, nice.
RC: Sorry I’m late, I couldn’t dial in earlier.
No worries, thank you for joining. I was just going to ask if you feel like your dynamic as a group has changed in any significant way since the early days.
JS: It’s funny to think about the first stuff we were putting out, like Cathy was singing in bed with all of us, but for this album, you won’t even let us be in the studio. [laughter]
CE: I know.
JS: She didn’t want us to hear.
CE: I didn’t know why with the first recordings I didn’t really care.
GK: There was low stakes on the first one. [laughs] We had nothing to gain, nothing to lose.
The dynamic hasn’t really changed, but the expectations have?
GK: I don’t necessarily feel like there’s any expectations, really, with the music stuff. The only expectation now is that Fat Possum stands to lose a lot of money – or gain.
CE: I think definitely for me, my expectations are different. I want this to be sustainable, something that I can count on to do long-term. And I don’t think that was ever on my mind with the first recordings. I don’t know if I didn’t feel this way before or if I so young that I didn’t need to think about it, but I wasn’t really thinking about things in the long term. But now I definitely don’t want to really do anything else with my life besides something music-related, so I feel like I take it more seriously now than I did then, for better or for worse. But I think it’s still important to not be afraid to be creative and goofy when you’re recording. I feel like that’s how you get the best quality, most interesting recordings.
RC: I’ve been playing in rock bands for a long time, but this is the only one I’ve ever been in that has done this much and travelled this far. It’s a lot different playing a basement in West Philly as opposed to being like, “Are we going to tour Europe during Omicron?” Pretty much everything has changed, but we’re still here. The core group has stayed constant.
Catherine, the sort of approach that you’re talking about, I feel like that’s reflected in the music, in this fusion of chaos and beauty that you’ve captured since day one and have further refined on this album. Do you have a strategic approach when it comes to maintaining that balance, or is it something more mindless?
CE: The need to balance out different sounds I feel like is always something I think about. It just makes things more interesting and dynamic; if something’s really heavy-sounding you sprinkle in some weird catchy, twinkly part or something, or vice versa. But something that really hasn’t changed is the way we write songs. That’s kind of always been the same, but then the recording process has evolved and been a little bit different each time. But they have always started just like, I’ll write something on my acoustic guitar and then we’ll add the different layers of everybody else’s parts. And because it’s kind of a long process to get to the final product, it kind of tweaks along the way and you figure out where things need to pop or have something different happen. That’s one thing that brings that balance of chaos and beauty, just because of the instruments that we use and the way we write songs.
I know many of the lyrics came from collaging different memories together, and I was wondering if those memories sort of change shape when when you construct them into a song or into a narrative, and then when you talk about them with the rest of the band or other people. How far does it eventually stray from the original source of inspiration?
CE: I think it does abstract the memories in a way where they don’t feel like my memories anymore. They feel like a story. And that’s how, when I’m writing lyrics, I’ll describe a scene in my mind from something and then construct something around it that maybe is not necessarily true. But it enhances the feeling that memory gives me, so it’s kind of like an impression of that. And so then it feels like more of a fantasy than a literal thing I’m recalling. It’s just a way of expressing that and getting it out in a way that’s cathartic.
Although many of the lyrics seem to come from a subconscious place, and they’re not necessarily specific, a song like ‘House + Universe’ I feel is more direct in its intensity and the desire that it evokes. It sounds like you want to take in the world around you, to be more than a passenger or a visitor. I was wondering if that was a more conscious feeling.
CE: I think that doesn’t necessarily occur to me until after, which is the subconscious thing. I’ll have the images in my mind that I’m trying to describe in a song that are tied to a feeling, and I don’t necessarily know what the feeling I’m evoking is. I’m having trouble putting it into words, which is kind of the purpose of songwriting, I guess. But then once all the songs are finished, I kind of look back and read all the lyrics and think, What was I feeling when I was writing all this? It’s kind of fun to see how everything’s connected thematically. But yeah, I like your read on that song. That makes sense to me.
Does anyone else in the band try to decode the songs in that way?
JS: Yeah, I always make up what the songs mean. [laughter] Like, “I wonder if that’s about that experience that she had.” It’s just fun for me, I don’t really do it with seriousness at all.
RC: I’m really bad with lyrics. I always think it’s something completely different. [laughter] I don’t have a good example of it, but anytime that I actually figure out what the lyrics are, it’s like, “Oh my god.”
CE: Disappointing, or?
RC: I like my lyrics better. [laughter] No, I’m kidding, they’re great.
Is it fun for you, Catherine, or would you rather they not try and piece apart every line?
CE: It’s fun for me to hear what other people think it means. I don’t necessarily think it’s useful for me to try to and pick it apart or figure out what everything means specifically, because that is sort of the purpose of writing the song in the first place, is that it’s not something that you can put into words easily. Some things are just written to evoke a feeling.
Is it useful for you as a band to discuss what the song is about when you’re putting it together?
CE: We don’t really ever do that. We did it a little bit when we were trying to figure out the album title, but it’s not really something we do. But I kind of like that. Everything means something separately, but when you put it together, there’s like another meaning that’s created. And I kind of like to do that in the lyrics, too, where I’ll open a book and take a line out and put it in and be like, “How does this change the feeling of it?” Overly intellectualising every aspect of it I feel like would be confusing, or maybe make whatever we’re trying to say too heavy-handed.
I love what you said in the beginning about eating together and how that’s an important part of being in the group. I was wondering if you could share one more thing that you love about being in the band that people might not be able to hear in the music.
CE: Wherever we are in the world, it just feels like you have your friends with you and you can have fun anywhere. I feel like there’s been situations where everything’s going wrong and this sucked, but we’re together and we’re just gonna laugh about it. [laughs]
JS: Yeah. I feel bound to you guys for life, no matter what happens. I feel like we’re family.
GK: I know when we’re all together and something bad happens, I’m like, “We’re gonna figure this out no matter what.” Because you’re always travelling something, something is bound to happen that’s not favourable, but I’m always just like, “This is chill. At least I’m with my best buds. Sure, we might be stuck somewhere, but we’re gonna figure it out.”
CE: Yeah, at least I’m not at work. That’s always what I say.
GW: Another favourite thing is even if we mess up the songs, no one’s ever like, “How could you fuck this up?” It’s like, “Damn, I really got off the rails there, my bad.” It’s never a big deal.
CE: I like that too. I like that we don’t take ourselves too seriously in that way. No one’s ever angry about something going wrong in the set. It doesn’t really matter. Obviously, we want to play well, but it just is what it is. And I feel like it always sounds good no matter what.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
Doja Cat is the star of a new Taco Bell commercial that’ll air during the Super Bowl LVI. The clip, titled ‘The Grande Escape’, is soundtracked by her new cover of Hole’s iconic song ‘Celebrity Skin’. According to a press release, the ad “serves as an epic story of liberation from conformity and shows Doja Cat alongside others who escape from a clown college in pursuit of discovering Live Más for themselves.” Courtney Love also helped in reworking the lyrics. Watch it below.
“It’s no secret I’m a major Taco Bell fan which has made my role with this campaign all the more fun,” Doja Cat said in a statement. “I’ve enjoyed every moment of this campaign, especially the ones where we get to break all the rules, and look forward to continuing collaborating with the brand.”
Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, and Mary J. Blige are set to perform at this year’s Super Bowl halftime show.
Big Thief have released their new double album, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, via 4AD. The band previewed the 20-track LP with seven singles, including ‘Simulation Swarm’, ‘Time Escaping’, ‘Little Things’, ‘Change’, ‘Certainty’, ‘No Reason’, and ‘Spud Infinity’. Adrianne Lenker, Max Oleartchik, Buck Meek, and James Krivchenia recorded it in four different locations, working with Sam Evian in Upstate New York, Shawn Everett in Topanga Canyon, Dom Monks in the Rocky Mountains, and Scott McMicken in Tucson, Arizona. “One of the things that bonds us together as a band is pure magic,” Lenker said in a statement. “I think we all have the same guide and none of us have ever spoken what it is because we couldn’t name it, but somehow, we are all going for the same thing, and when we hit it… we all know it’s it, but none of us to this day, or maybe ever, will be able to articulate in words what the ‘it’ is. Something about it is magic to me.”
Spoon have returned with their tenth studio album, Lucifer on the Sofa, which is out now via Matador. The follow-up to 2017’s Hot Thoughts was co-produced by Spoon and Mark Rankin (Adele, Queens of the Stone Age) and includes contributions from Dave Fridmann and Justin Raisen. In press materials, frontman Britt Daniel described the new LP as “the sound of classic rock as written by a guy who never did get Eric Clapton.” Lucifer on the Sofa was preceded by the singles ‘The Hardest Cut’ and ‘Wild’, and ‘My Babe’.
Empath’s sophomore full-length, Visitor, has arrived via Fat Possum. Following the Philadelphia quartet’s 2019 debut Active Listening: Night on Earth, the album includes the previously released tracks ‘Born 100 Times’, ‘Diamond Eyelids’, ‘Passing Stranger’, and ‘Elvis Comeback Special’ and was recorded with producer Jake Portrait (of Unknown Mortal Orchestra), making it the first time they’ve worked together in a formal studio. Reflecting on the album’s cover art, photographed by Andrew Emond, singer Catherine Elicson said: “The spaces look lived in and altered by humans but no humans are present. The songs are similar in the sense that they talk about the ‘space’ between people. They’re not about specific people per se, but they illustrate the feelings people leave between each other, these subjective experiences. You can think of Visitor as a soundtrack to the memories and feelings that remain in places people have left behind.” Read our Artist Spotlight interview with Empath.
Shamir has put out his latest LP, Heterosexuality, via AntiFragile Music. The follow-up to Shamir’s 2020 self-titled record features the previously unveiled singles ‘Gay Agenda’, ‘Cisgender’, and ‘Reproductive’, and was produced by Hollow Comet (aka Strange Ranger’s Isaac Eiger). “His sound was something that honestly I was dreaming up in my head,” Shamir said in a statement. “But couldn’t find someone who could do it, nor could I do it myself. When I finally heard his work, I just thought… what the fuck, I finally found it.” Commenting on the album’s themes, he added: “I think this album is me finally acknowledging my trauma. Everyone knows I’ve been through so much shit and I kind of just rammed through, without really acknowledging the actual trauma that I do feel on almost a daily basis.”
claire rousay and more eaze have today issued their new album, Never Stop Texting Me, via Orange Milk. It follows two projects the artists collaborated on last year – their joint album an afternoon whine and rousay’s sometimes i feel like i have no friends – and includes contributions from Bloodzboi and How to Dress Well. According to the album’s press bio, “Mari and Claire share an equal amount of duties on the record, rendering it a pure representation of their collaborative work. The appeal of this record is the assertive pop blending w Robert Ashley like moments which simultaneously satiates the desire to hear structure and the abstract.” The duo shared a pair of tracks, ‘same’ and ‘hands’, ahead of the release.
Pearl Jam leader Eddie Vedder has a new solo album out today called Earthling. Released via Seattle Surf/Republic, it marks his first solo effort in 11 years, following 2011’s Ukulele Songs. The album features guest appearances from Stevie Wonder, Ringo Starr, and Elton John, as well as contributions from Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, former RHCP guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, co-producer Andrew Watt on guitars, Pino Palladino on bass, and Glen Hansard on guitars and backing vocals. The singles ‘Long Way’, ‘The Haves’, and ‘Brother the Cloud’ preceded the record.
Don’t Talk to Me is the debut album by Dropper, the Brooklyn-based outfit led by multi-instrumentalist Andrea Scanniello alongside longtime collaborators Jono Bernstein, Yukary Morishima, and Larry Scanniello. Out today via the band’s own Dirt Dog label, the album was produced by Andrija Tokic at Nashville’s Bomb Shelter studio and mastered by engineer Heba Kadry. According to a press release, Dropper make music for: “People who have worked in the service industry too long and become curmudgeons at the ripe old age of 26. People who are lonely yet want to be left alone. People who drink because they are sad but also sad because they drink. Bisexuals with crumbs in their bed. Optimistic pessimists. Those with seasonal allergies. But overwhelmingly for people who, in lieu of being crushed by the eternal weight of existence, choose to scream internally with a smile upon their face.”
Ride’s Andy Bell has released a new solo album, Flicker, via Sonic Cathedral. The 18-track LP marks the guitarist and songwriter’s first solo release since 2020’s The View From Halfway Down Talking. Talking about the new record in a statement, Bell explained: “When I think about Flicker, I see it as closure. Most literally, on a half-finished project from over six years ago, but also on a much bigger timescale. Some of these songs date back to the ’90s and the cognitive dissonance of writing brand new lyrics over songs that are 20-plus years old makes it feel like it is, almost literally, me exchanging ideas with my younger self.”
alt-J are back with their fourth album, The Dream, which is out now via Canvasback/Infectious Music. The 12-track effort follows 2017’s Relaxer and was previewed with the singles ‘Hard Drive Gold’, ‘U&ME’, ‘Get Better’, and ‘The Actor’. “If there was ever going to be a world event that made us finally write a song about real life, it would be the pandemic,” lead vocalist and guitarist Joe Newman said in an interview with NME. “But crucially, I feel like we’re relaxing into accepting the fact that we can actually write songs about the real world, and we’re now allowing ourselves to go there. If people are still listening to our music in 30 years time, I’d love for them to think, ‘Alt-J did something really special on their fourth album. They really brought themselves into it.’”
