Foxing have dropped their self-titled album via their own Grand Paradise label. The follow-up to 2021’s Draw Down the Moon includes the previously released singles ‘Greyhound’ and ‘Hell 99’. “I think it’s the most introspective album in terms of our band itself,” Conor Murphy said in our interview. “It’s kind of the band looking in the mirror more so than me individually. With past albums, just lyrically speaking, there’s a lot of personal deep-dive stuff – whether it’s about growing up, sexuality, depression, religion, or whatever the themes are. With this album, I feel like the vast majority of the songs are still written personally, but they’re more about the experience of this band’s career.”
Porches, the musical project led by NYC’s Aaron Maine, has returned with a new album called Shirt. Out now via Domino, the follow-up to 2021’s All Day Gentle Hold ! was preceded by the singles ‘Rag’, ‘Joker’, ‘Itch’, and ‘Crying at the End’. It’s “part angsty fantasy, part confessional melodrama,” according to a press release, “a rock album that oscillates between reality and make-believe to reflect both the innocence of suburban youth and the frayed reality of adulthood. A fusion of chaotic impulses, insatiable desires, and a perpetual yearning, Shirt plays with the tension between one’s person and persona – the weight of your dreams crashing up against your reality.”
Lunar Vacation, Everything Matters, Everything’s Fire
Lunar Vacation have followed up 2021’s Inside Every Fig is a Dead Wasp with a new LP titled Everything Matters, Everything’s Fire. Produced by Drew Vandenberg and released on Keeled Scales, the record features the advance singles ‘Set the Stage’ – which came with a Finn Wolfhard-directed video – ‘Set the Stage’, ‘Sick’, ‘Tom’, and ‘Fantasy’. “Our last album was super produced, manicured,” guitarist and vocalist Maggie Geeslin said in a statement. “This one’s organic. We embraced mistakes; it made the work even better.”
Allegra Krieger, Art of the Unseen Infinity Machine
Allegra Krieger has unveiled a new album titled Art of the Unseen Infinity Machine, following up last year’s I Keep My Feet on the Fragile Plane. Ahead of its release, the New York singer-songwriter shared the singles ‘Came’, ‘Never Arriving’, ‘Into Eternity’, and ‘Roosevelt Ave’. She wrote much of the album in the months that following her escape after multiple lithium batteries combusted and set fire to the e-bike shop on the ground floor of her Chinatown apartment building. The collection is “more outward looking, more questioning,” Krieger explained. “These songs are obviously extremely personal. But they also sucked the whole world in.”
Floating Points has released a new album, Cascade, via Ninja Tune. It follows Mere Mortals, Sam Shepherd’s first ballet score made in collaboration with the San Francisco Ballet, as well as Promises, his 2021 collaborative album with Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra. “I’m just constantly chasing challenges,” he remarked. “I always want to keep things moving and go all in on things that excite me. Whether that’s working with a 100-piece orchestra on a ballet or on a laptop on my own.” The singles ‘Birth4000’, ‘Del Oro’, ‘Key103’, and ‘Ocotillo’ arrived ahead of the release.
New York City-based songwriter and poet Wendy Eisenberg has issued a new LP, Viewfinder, via American Dreams. The follow-up to 2021’s Bent Ring includes the previously shared tracks ‘HM’ and ‘Lasik’. “A viewfinder is the window through which a photographer looks onto a preview of their image before it is captured,” a press release notes. “It’s easy to forget this in the age of the smartphone, to have been defamiliarized from the process of manipulating a proper camera. Some viewfinders, severed from the camera’s capturing lens, distort the angle by which a tableau is made legible. The prelude and its final form are thus related but non-identical. Our ways of seeing, of course, are always approximate. What we know of what we look at arrives in us slantwise, refracted through the singularity of experience.”
Suki Waterhouse’s latest album, Memoir of a Sparklemuffin, has arrived via Sub Pop. The 18-track double album, which follows 2022’s I Can’t Let Go, was promoted with the singles ‘My Fun’, ‘Faded’, and ‘Blackout Drunk’. “I came across the Sparklemuffin – which is wildly colored, does this razzle-dazzle dance, and its mate will cannibalize it if she doesn’t approve of the dance,” Waterhouse explained in a statement. “It’s a metaphor for the dance of life we’re all in. The title felt hilarious, ridiculous, and wonderful to me.”
Los Angeles shoegaze/noise rock outfit julie have come through with their debut LP, my anti-aircraft friend, out now via Atlantic Records. The band – Alexandria Elizabeth on vocals and bass, Keyan Pourzand on vocals and guitar, and Dillon Lee on drums – previewed the album with the singles ‘very little effort’ and ‘clairbourne practice’. “It’s us becoming more vulnerable, and more accurate with the emotional expression,” Lee said in press materials. “Some of the songs in the earlier days are a bit more guarded or timid. Now we’re more confident in what we want to do.”
Ginger Root – the California-based project of Cameron Lew – has released a new record, SHINBANGUMI. Featuring the early tracks ‘No Problems’, ‘Better Than Monday’, ‘All Night’, and ‘There Was a Time’, it marks his third full-length and first for new label home Ghostly International. “In terms of instrumentation and musicality, it’s the first time that I felt very confident and comfortable with what everything should be comprised of,” Lew explained. “On the more personal side, I’m coming out of the last four years of writing, touring, and living as a different person; SHINBANGUMI is a platform to showcase my new self.”
Other albums out today:
Snow Patrol, The Forest Is the Path; Tindersticks, Soft Tissue; LSDXOXO, DOGMA; Nada Surf, Moon Mirror; My Brightest Diamond, Fight the Real Terror; Kal Marks, Wasteland Baby; Chastity, Chastity; Worlds Greatest Dad, Better Luck Next Time; Gia Ford, Transparent Things; TR/ST, Performance; Bad Moves, Wearing Out the Refrain; Colin Stetson, The love it took to leave you; London Grammar, The Greatest Love; Hello Mary, Emita Ox; Chilly Gonzales, Gonzo; Lily Kershaw, Pain & More; Dora Jara, No Way to Relax When You’re on Fire; Fousheé, Pointy Heights; ionnalee, Close Your Eyes; Sarah Davachi, The Head as Form’d in the Crier’s Choir.
Becoming a therapist is a rewarding yet challenging journey, one that requires dedication, compassion, and a strong understanding of human behavior. Whether you’re just starting your education or are close to entering the profession, it’s important to be prepared for the realities of this career. From navigating education and licensure to developing effective communication skills, future therapists have much to learn to provide the best care to their clients. Here are some useful tips that will help you on your path to becoming a successful therapist.
Navigating the Path to Becoming a Therapist
Becoming a therapist involves completing rigorous education, gaining experience, and obtaining the necessary credentials. Professionals can pursue different licensures depending on their area of focus, such as Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), or Licensed Addiction Counselor (LAC). Each licensure requires meeting specific education and clinical hour requirements. Aspiring LPCs, for example, often work under LPC supervisors, who provide guidance and oversight during the required supervised practice hours. Whether we are talking about LPC supervisors in Colorado or any other place. this supervision is crucial for developing practical skills and navigating complex client issues. Ultimately, the licensure you choose will define the scope of your practice and the types of clients you can serve, shaping your career as a therapist.
Understand the Licensing Requirements
Therapists must be licensed to practice, and the requirements vary by state and country. It’s important to familiarize yourself with the licensure requirements early on so that you can plan accordingly. In most cases, therapists must complete a set number of supervised clinical hours, pass a licensing exam, and meet continuing education standards throughout their career.
Stay organized by keeping track of your supervised hours and documentation. It’s also helpful to connect with licensed professionals who can offer guidance on navigating the licensure process. Remember, earning your license is just the beginning—keeping up with renewals and staying informed about changes in regulations is a critical part of maintaining your professional status.
Develop Strong Communication Skills
As a therapist, your ability to communicate effectively is essential to building trust and understanding with your clients. Active listening, empathy, and clear communication are the cornerstones of successful therapy. Future therapists should focus on honing these skills through both academic training and practice in real-life situations.
Active listening involves more than just hearing words—it requires understanding the emotions and intentions behind what clients are saying. Practice being fully present during conversations, asking open-ended questions, and reflecting what you’ve heard to ensure clarity. Additionally, develop a non-judgmental attitude, as clients need to feel safe sharing their thoughts and feelings without fear of being criticized.
Practice Self-Care and Set Boundaries
Therapists often deal with emotionally heavy topics, and it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the stress of helping others. To avoid burnout, it’s crucial to prioritize your self-care and establish healthy boundaries. This means recognizing when you need a break, seeking support from colleagues or mentors, and managing your workload to prevent exhaustion.
Setting boundaries with clients is equally important. While building rapport is essential, maintaining a professional distance ensures that you can offer objective advice and avoid becoming too emotionally involved. Future therapists should learn to balance empathy with detachment, allowing them to offer support without sacrificing their emotional well-being.
Embrace Lifelong Learning
The field of therapy is constantly evolving, with new research, treatments, and methodologies emerging regularly. As a future therapist, it’s important to commit to lifelong learning to stay updated on the latest advancements in the field. Continuing education is not only required for licensure renewal but also essential for offering the best care to your clients.
Attend workshops, conferences, and seminars to expand your knowledge and stay informed about the latest trends in therapy. Reading professional journals, and books, and engaging in peer discussions can also help you remain current in your practice. Being open to learning will allow you to integrate new techniques into your therapy sessions and provide your clients with the most effective treatments.
Seek Supervision and Mentorship
Supervision and mentorship are invaluable tools for any future therapist. Supervision provides an opportunity to discuss challenging cases, receive feedback, and improve your clinical skills. Most licensure processes require a certain number of supervised hours, but even after meeting these requirements, ongoing supervision can help you grow as a therapist.
A mentor, on the other hand, can offer guidance on career development, ethical dilemmas, and personal growth within the profession. Find someone you respect and trust to serve as a mentor, whether it’s a professor, licensed therapist, or a colleague. Their insight can help you navigate the challenges of being a therapist and provide emotional support during difficult times.
Cultivate Cultural Competence
Cultural competence is a vital skill for therapists, as clients come from diverse backgrounds with unique experiences and perspectives. Understanding how culture, race, gender, and socioeconomic status affect mental health is essential for providing effective therapy. Future therapists should prioritize learning about different cultures and how to approach therapy with cultural sensitivity.
This involves not only educating yourself but also being open to learning from your clients. Each client’s experience is unique, and being able to adapt your approach to meet their needs is crucial. Avoid making assumptions based on a client’s background, and always be willing to listen and learn from their perspective.
Becoming a therapist is a meaningful and fulfilling career, but it requires thorough preparation, ongoing learning, and personal resilience. By prioritizing education, developing strong communication skills, and seeking mentorship, future therapists can build a solid foundation for a successful practice. Additionally, practicing self-care, embracing cultural competence, and preparing for ethical challenges will help you navigate the complexities of the profession. With the right mindset and commitment, you’ll be well on your way to making a positive impact in the lives of your future clients.
There are films, and then there are Wes Anderson films. His symmetrical frames, pastel color palettes, and quicky characters are not only a distinctive niche, but also a cultural phenomenon. It is now being copied everywhere, from films and TV to advertisements and social media. But what is it about Wes Anderson’s aesthetic and narrative approach that has made such a mark on our visual culture, inspiring copycats plenty?
The Wes Anderson Style: A Cultural Trademark
The core of Wes Anderson’s appeal is the craftsmanship that births his movies. The Royal Tenenbaums, moonrise Kingdom, and the Grand Budapest Hotel are visual symphonies composed of perfect shots, vintage-inspired color palettes, and eccentric set designs. The characters in these movies inhabit structured, dreamlike worlds that combine melancholy and playfulness. What is more, even the most bizarre narrative elements are meticulously planned and wrapped in melancholic humor.
However, Anderson does not bet solely on aesthetics, as his narratives often explore themes of family, loneliness, and human connection. It is this combination of visual excellence and deep emotional connection that has made Wes Anderson a trademark of the film industry. A trademark that has spilled over into other industries and created more copycats than there are slot machine variants.
The Rise of Wes Anderson Copycats
Fans and those envious of Anderson’s style have tried to replicate it time and time again. It has infected TV with shows like Pushing Daisies and a Series of Unfortunate Events taking the form of whimsical, pastel-coated gems. But movies such as The Grand Seduction and Submarine have also upped the ante.
However, movies and TV are not the only ones that have gone all-in on Wes Anderson’s style. Advertising agencies around the world have tried to capitalize on the style’s popularity, thus trying to sell everything from soft drinks to cars. Symmetry, vibrant compositions, and ironic humor have been behind various commercials for IKEA, H&M, and even insurance companies. What is more, there are entire websites built around Anderson’s style, with some covering surprising topics. By far, the most surprising ones are online gambling operator sites that build their UI and color scheme not around traditional gaming but around pastel colors and playful symmetry.
The Social Media Explosion: #WesAnderson
Beyond TV and film, Anderson’s style has gone viral on multiple social media platforms. The age of Instagram and TikTok, where users tag pictures of symmetrical landscapes, pastel-colored street corners, and retro-inspired outfits with #WesAnderson. Everyday scenes are reinterpreted through the Anderson lens, turning the mundane into something cinematic. This social media trend thus highlights the visual vocabulary Anderson has introduced into pop culture, inspiring both professionals and amateur creators.
The Wes Anderson phenomenon represents the democratization of Anderson’s style, where anyone with a smartphone can try their hand at creating a “Wes Anderson moment”. The accessibility of this aesthetic, based on framing, colors, and mood, allows people to participate in a form of global visual homage.
The Impact on Cinema and Television
While not everyone directly copies Anderson’s style, as that would be a silly gamble, there are now expanded possibilities for whimsical, stylized storytelling in mainstream media. This shift is evident in the growing acceptance of quirky, visually striking narratives that combine humor and heart while also emphasizing meticulous production design.
Some of the most famous directors who have been inspired by Anderson are Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, and Tim Burton. But these imitations go beyond poker face copying; they pay homage to the directive brilliance of their original creator. This copying is sometimes a risky gamble, as gritty narratives like The Crown and Breaking Bad permeate our pop culture.
Copycats or Creative Evolution?
Have you ever noticed how every casino looks sort of the same? While that is not exactly true, especially if you consult industry experts, there is some truth to it. The truth is that certain styles simply work. They tickle our artistic taste buds and leave us wanting more, which can also be said of the Wes Anderson style. It is, therefore, a bit difficult to distinguish between copycats and creative evolution.
A great example is the TV show Russian Doll, which borrows certain aspects of Anderson’s narrative structure and visual quirks while fusing them with a more rounded and existential tone. Anderson is, therefore, the ante bet of new storytelling possibilities. While labeling someone as a copycat is easy, diving into the nuances of their creation and seeing them as a part of creative evolution is difficult.
The Legacy of Wes Anderson
Just as distinguishing copycats from creative evolution is difficult, so is understanding the legacy of Wes Anderson. He will continue to inspire new generations of filmmakers, marketers, and social media users. His impact on culture is profound and a lighthearted morsel of creativity that opens up a universe of delight. It is impossible to say just how the story of Wes Anderson’s creation will end, but it is destined to be an interesting and memorable journey all the same.
As online casinos continue to grow in popularity worldwide, one key factor that makes them appealing to a diverse audience is the wide range of currencies they accept. For players from different countries, being able to use their local currency or a preferred international option is essential for a smooth and convenient gambling experience. Online casinos today accept a broad variety of currencies to cater to their global audience. Whether you’re playing from Europe, Asia, or the Americas, there’s likely a currency option that fits your needs. Let’s explore the most common currencies accepted by online casinos and how they work.
USD (United States Dollar)
The U.S. dollar (USD) is one of the most widely accepted currencies in the online casino world. Given that the United States has a large and active gambling market, many online casinos cater to American players by allowing transactions in USD. Even international casinos outside the U.S. often accept the dollar due to its global status as a dominant reserve currency.
Players who use USD will find it easy to make deposits, withdrawals, and bets without the need for currency conversions, which can save time and reduce costs associated with exchange rates and fees.
EUR (Euro)
The euro (EUR) is another major currency widely accepted in online casinos, particularly those catering to European players. Given the European Union’s large market, most European-based and international online casinos offer the option to deposit and withdraw in euros. Whether you’re playing from Germany, France, Spain, or Italy, you’ll likely be able to use the euro as your default currency.
Choosing EUR as your preferred currency can be beneficial, as it helps avoid any conversion fees that might apply if you were to use a different currency in a European-based casino.
GBP (British Pound Sterling)
British players represent a significant portion of the global online casino audience, and as such, the British pound (GBP) is frequently accepted at both UK-based and international online casinos. Thanks to the UK’s well-established online gambling regulations, many operators specifically cater to this market, making the pound a standard currency choice.
For UK players, using GBP eliminates the hassle of currency exchange and ensures that the deposited amount remains consistent with what is shown in the account.
CAD (Canadian Dollar)
Canadian players enjoy a thriving online gambling scene, and the Canadian dollar (CAD) is commonly accepted at most online casinos that serve this market. Canadian-friendly casinos often feature CAD as one of their primary currencies, allowing players from Canada to deposit, withdraw, and wager without worrying about exchange rates or additional fees.
Given the country’s openness to online gambling and the increasing number of casinos targeting the Canadian market, CAD is becoming a more prominent currency in the online casino industry.
AUD (Australian Dollar)
The Australian dollar (AUD) is also widely accepted by online casinos, especially those that focus on Australian players. Many Australian-friendly online casinos offer AUD as a currency option, which makes it easier for players from Australia to gamble without needing to convert to another currency. With strict gambling regulations in Australia, casinos that accept AUD often provide transparent and fair practices to ensure a safe betting environment for Australian players.
Cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, and more)
In recent years, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC) have become popular payment options in online casinos. Many online platforms now cater to cryptocurrency users by allowing deposits and withdrawals in digital currencies. Crypto casinos are attractive to players due to the anonymity, security, and fast transaction times that cryptocurrencies offer.
For players who prefer decentralization and privacy, using Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies offers a seamless experience, often with lower fees and quicker processing than traditional currencies. Some casinos, like www.bitcoingames.com, are exclusively crypto-based, meaning they only accept digital currencies.
Currency Conversion and Exchange Rates
For players using a currency not directly supported by their chosen online casino, automatic currency conversion may be offered by the platform. However, it’s essential to be aware that currency conversion usually comes with fees or varying exchange rates, which can impact the amount of money available for betting or withdrawing.
Many casinos clearly display any fees associated with currency conversion, and players are encouraged to review these details before completing transactions. Using your local or preferred currency when available helps avoid these extra costs.
Conclusion
Online casinos accept a wide variety of currencies to cater to their global user base, from major currencies like USD, EUR, and GBP to regional options like AUD, CAD, and even cryptocurrencies. This broad acceptance makes it easier for players to participate without the need for cumbersome currency exchanges or fees. Whether you prefer traditional currencies or digital ones, it’s important to choose an online casino that offers your currency to ensure smooth and cost-effective transactions. Always check the currency options available before registering or making a deposit to ensure your gambling experience is as convenient as possible.
Miya Folick is back with ‘La Da Da’, her first single since last year’s ROACH. The track was produced by Folick and co-written by Richard Orofino (Bloomsday, Stephen Dawes) and Aidan Spiro (Dreamer Boy, Petey). Check it out below.
“I wrote ‘La Da Da’ in a period when I was actively pulling away from a pace of life that didn’t suit me,” Folick explained in a statement. “I was slowing down, saying no, responding when I actually had an answer, and asking for the things I specifically desired rather than the things I thought I was supposed to want. I was turning things in late and taking my time to get them right.”
Casino gaming is perhaps more popular than most people ever thought it would be in the UK. You can join and play games across hundreds of sites and some of the player statistics are staggering. A recent report from the Gambling Commission identified that over 6 million adults enjoy some form of casino gaming each month.
On the face of it, there’s no reason for casino gaming to be so popular. What is it about this sector that makes people come back time and time again? The obvious answer would be the temptation of winning money – that’s definitely a factor (as we’ll discuss later on) but what else makes casino gaming a highlight for millions?
We looked at the world of igaming, spoke to a few friends and believe we’ve found some of the core reasons this genre has taken off in the UK…
Freebies & Bonuses Are Up For Grabs
Imagine you’re playing a game on your PC or console and it offers a free gift to help you in the game. You’d lap it up immediately and it would encourage you to keep playing the game if more of these freebies are handed out. Hell, gamers play games for days on end when they give out free cosmetic skins, let alone actual gifts of monetary value!
That’s one of the aspects where casino gaming excels. Operators all over the web offer bonuses and deals all the time. You’ll even find some providing nonGamStop free spins no deposit on the CasinoGam website. Offers like this mean players are given things for free in some circumstances – and not just anything; free spins or money to use on different casino games.
In other words, you’re given ways to potentially win money without spending any.
And then you have deals that require a bit of investment. If online gaming has taught us anything, it’s that people will be drawn to games that involve a bit of money here and there. You buy skins or loot boxes all the time to try and get an edge in-game, so how is this any different?
It’s a similar concept for sure, and that’s why we think casino gaming has become so rapidly popular. Gamers love spending money when it gives them an advantage – in this realm, the “advantage” is more money to bet with. You feel rewarded by the site and this sense of gratification keeps you coming back for more.
Many Casino Games Are Easy To Play
If we had to pick one massive trend in the gaming industry to summarise games these days, it would be this: everyone’s trying to create harder and harder games. The Dark Souls style of game is quickly becoming mainstream and that’s reflected in the fact Elden Ring scooped numerous awards at the Game Awards when it came out. A good portion of the gaming market wants to see difficult games with tough mechanics – some of the biggest criticisms for new games is that they’re “too easy”.
And yet, there’s a massive collection of gamers who just want to have fun.
They don’t care for insane difficulties; they want games that can be loaded up, played for a while, and that’s it. This is where casino games have snuck their way into a gap in the market. While the world goes crazy for hard games, casinos offer a simple solution. What’s easier than playing a game where all you have to do is click a couple of buttons? People love the ease of access these games provide and it makes them easy to enjoy and play again.
It kind of comes back to one of the core reasons a lot of us got into gaming. We wanted something to help us relax and have fun in our spare time. Could casino games be offering this while mainstream games are more about raising the difficulty bar? It certainly looks like it!
You Can Win Money From Gaming
Okay, elephant in the room time.
We’d be fools to ignore the money-winning aspect of casino gaming. Ultimately, it’s why most people get involved in it. There’s a thrill that comes from winning a bet on the digital roulette table or seeing your slot game trigger a bonus mode. We all love playing games – but we also love making money while playing games.
Not everyone can be a streamer or professional esports athlete, so casino gaming represents the most accessible way to make money from gaming. It adds a new dimension to your gaming sessions as you can walk away with more cash than before.
This also opens up a whole can of worms about responsible gaming. Playing casino games to win a bit of money is okay, as long as you don’t depend on the money. Treat it like any other video game; you have a budget you might spend on skins or in-game items, but instead you use it on a casino game. As long as you don’t go over your budget, you’ll be fine.
Finally, we think part of the reason people love casino gaming is down to the strategy involved in some games.
Poker and blackjack are two that spring to mind more than anything else. Both revolve around a steady stream of luck, yet you can use your wits to win more often than you lose. That’s certainly the case with poker – which is a proper sport in some respects – and is all about strategic thinking.
Gamers love putting their thinking caps on and trying to “beat the boss” if you will. There’s also something extra rewarding about outthinking or outsmarting an online casino; it’s the ultimate feather in your cap.
After looking at the reasons above, casino gaming’s popularity becomes clearer. We still think a large part has to do with winning money – though many players now enjoy playing these games for free with fake cash! There’s a simplicity to them that’s relaxing in some ways while other casino games challenge your strategic brain. We think they’ll remain popular for a long time and could be the only game genre that never goes out of fashion.
Heavenly Sweeheart – led by PONY’s Sam Bielanski and Matty Morand – have dropped a new single, ‘HSP’. Following last month’s Liquid Mike collab ‘$300’, the song features Josh Cassidy on guest vocals. Listen to it below.
“HSP is a song about grief and struggling to exist in the moment,” Morand said in a statement. “I spent a lot of the past couple of years taking care of my dad when he was sick and everything felt so heavy like, ‘What if this is the last time I see you and we’re fighting? What if I leave town this weekend and something happens?’ This song kind of came out all at once at the height of that time.”
FKA twigs has officially announced her third studio album, EUSEXUA, which is set for release on January 24 via Young Recordings. The title track – co-produced by twigs, Koreless, and Eartheater, the latter of whom also contributes backing vocals – is out today alongside a Jordan Hemingway-directed video. Check it out below.
EUSEXUA, the follow-up to twigs’ 2022 mixtape CAPRISONGS, was inspired by her time living in Prague. “i moved to prague a couple summers ago, fell in love with techno, the album isn’t techno but the spirit is there fr,” the artist said on her Discord server back in January. “It’s deep but not sad. I’m not sad anymore.”
The Weeknd has released ‘Dancing in the Flames’, one of the songs he debuted at his São Paulo concert last weekend. It’s the lead single from his forthcoming album Hurry Up Tomorrow, which doesn’t have a confirmed release date yet. The song’s accompanying video, directed by Anton Tammi and director of photography Erik Henrikkson, was shot on the new iPhone 16 Pro. Check it out below.
Hurry Up Tomorrow marks the third part of a trilogy, following 2020’s After Hours and 2022’s Dawn FM.
On the chorus of ‘Gratitude’, a blistering highlight from Foxing‘s new self-titled LP, Conor Murphy lists a series of desires, each more striking than the last: “I wanna hear God yelling at me/ I wanna live my life like a memory/ I wanna sow rage into my brain/ I want wrath written into my DNA.” Like so much of Foxing, the moment is visceral, unguarded, and relentless, neatly capturing the band’s catalog of yearning: a violently spiritual search for meaning, a fury so pervasive it needs biology, a reckoning with the past that can’t be chalked up to nostalgia. Produced by the band and mixed by guitarist Eric Hudson, the album shares the ambition, rawness, and a lot of the same frustrations as its predecessor, 2021’s Manchester Orchestra-produced Draw Down the Moon, but what makes Foxing astounding is less of a streamlined approach than a sharp attunement to its emotional and aesthetic extremes: the bleakness, the catharsis, the exultation; heavy guitars, atmospheric synths, screams over gorgeous melodies. It’s a lot, but it manages to hold itself together. For Foxing, DIY is less of a perfect anti-capitalist philosophy than it is about the doing, the same way living life like a memory is still about living – even if it means scrambling for a sense of worth, sweeping up the mess, and gasping for air, day after day.
We caught up with Foxing’s Conor Murphy to talk about self-titling their new album, the collaborative process behind it, where the hope is, and more.
I know you’re not doing a ton of press for this record. How do you feel about the rollout so far?
The rollout process has been great. With our last record, Draw Down the Moon, it was a 6-month rollout, so it took forever to put it out, and we put out nearly half the album before the release. It was just constant work. I’m really proud of that rollout because we did a ton of stuff – we made a website for it that had a lot of puzzles and really weird things going on, like it had an RPG in it. But it took so long, and it got to a point where it was just a relief to have it out because it meant we didn’t have to do anything anymore. And I think it was a relief for fans, or just people who wanted to listen to the album, because it took forever. With this one, we wanted to do the opposite. The initial idea was to just surprise-release it, but that’s so hard to do when you’re a smaller band like us. Nobody cares – if you surprise-release an album, most people are like, “Oh, cool.” And it’s too big of an investment – of time, effort, money, and passion – to do something that just goes unnoticed. So we went in the middle, which was 3, 4 weeks, and it’s been great.
We also did nonstop press for the last album. There was a point where every day I was doing a minimum of two interviews, but sometimes it was 4-5 a day, for like three weeks. The pandemic was in full swing, so I was mostly just at home, but at a certain point, it’s just exhausting. There’s people like a radio host in Jakarta who I was in an interview with – which is awesome, that was really cool – but they were also like, “Tell me about your band. What does the name Foxing mean?” And it’s like going back to square one with a lot of people. I didn’t want to do that this time around. Our rule on this one is to only do interviews if we haven’t done them with before, or if we have and we enjoyed them, or if they sound fun. Those were only rules. It’s nice to be more selective.
I wanted to ask you about the decision to self-title the album, which I’m assuming has a lot to do with self-producing and self-releasing it, but I wonder if there’s more to the thinking behind it.
It’s mostly those things. I think it’s the most introspective album in terms of our band itself. It’s kind of the band looking in the mirror more so than me individually. With past albums, just lyrically speaking, there’s a lot of personal deep-dive stuff – whether it’s about growing up, sexuality, depression, religion, or whatever the themes are. With this album, I feel like the vast majority of the songs are still written personally, but they’re more about the experience of this band’s career. Not like telling the story of the band, but more like reflecting on what it feels like to have spent so much of your life working towards something, then looking at it as, “What has it all meant? Was it worth it? Should I keep doing it?” I don’t think I’m speaking to anything uniquely personal to me. It feels like I’m speaking for the rest of the band. I mean, for all the songs, I went over the lyrics meticulously with the rest of the band in a way I hadn’t done before. So I think this is the most “from the band’s perspective” set of lyrics that we’ve released.
That, paired with the self-produced aspect of it – Eric produced it, we mixed it, Brett made the art for the album cover, I made the music videos. We all contributed to all these things, it was all done in-house. Brett’s making all the merch for the tour. Really early on, Eric and I were talking about self-releasing, it was like, “If we self-release it, we should self-produce and mix it.” We were just throwing ideas back and forth, and we were like, “It’d be really cool if it was self-released, self-produced, self-titled.” Since then, there’s never been an album name that came close to making more sense.
When you’re collectively looking in the mirror, even if it’s you speaking for the band or going through lyrics with everyone, are there conflicting perspectives at play? Did it get challenging to try and look back at it all with a sort of overarching perspective?
I think in some ways. In past albums, for example, there’d be a song that’s written about, say, a friend dying or something like that. Then I’d bring it to everybody, and they’d be like, “That’s well written” or “Maybe in this spot, what if you change this line to this?” But was more like, “Do your thing,” because it was very personal. With this one, I’d write a song like ‘Greyhound’, which is about cataloging the emotions of a decade of doing this job, and there were a lot more notes and ideas like, “I don’t really like how this line comes across.” It’s not that difficult because it’s still my personal feelings on something.
The most difficult song to do that with was ‘Hell 99’, because it was both Eric and my lyrics going back and forth with each other. It’s funny, because now I look at it and think that’s such a cool thing that happened, but while we were working on it, it was actually argumentative. Eric wrote the lines that he screams, and I wrote the lines that I sing, but we were editing each other’s stuff. It’s too confusing to go into the process how we got to where it ended up, but a huge part of it was that Eric was looking at it from a place of being exhausted and furious about the state of music and art consumption, and I approached it from a perspective of feeling apathy, shame, and just depression when I look at the state of consumption of media and art. I was looking at it more like, “I’m so embarrassed for both the people who listen to music and for people who make music.”
So we were kind of at odds with each other on how to write that. But I think it ended up being really cool because those two things – the two conflicting but similar ideas – are actually happening at the same time, sung by two different people and layered on top of each other. And they go back and forth, where the angry one is screaming and the depressed one is singing, and at the end, they actually are on top of each other: my part is singing “constant shame,” and his part is screaming “constant fatigue.” And then they coalesce with both of us screaming, “Is this all there is?” And it’s funny because none of that was intentional at all. It wasn’t like, “Oh, I’ll be the one that’s sad, and you’ll be the one that’s angry.” It was more that we were like, “This is how you write it,” “No, this is how you write it.” [laughs]
I thought that was the coolest example of being at odds with each other about that stuff, but with almost every other song, if there was an issue with the lyrics or how they were written, it was mostly based in Eric saying, like, “I think you can do better than that,” or that I should rewrite something because the vocal melody isn’t to his liking or the lyrics aren’t cutting it. So I would just try again until everyone in the band was happy.
It’s interesting hearing about these sentiments being kind of at odds with each other while being clearly connected. In the bio for Foxing, Ryan Wasoba talks about the balance of hope and nihilism, which to me feels like a pendulum swing, but also, like you said, two things happening at the same time. This is an existential record, but I’m interested in the idea of there being hopeful ways to be existential. How do you see that manifesting on the record or in your life beyond it? I’m thinking of this line from ‘Hell 99’: “a better quality of suffering.”
That line, “a better quality of suffering,” comes from a movie called A Field in England. It’s a weird, funny, experimental film from 2013. It’s like a 17th-century war movie. I won’t go into the whole backstory of where the line comes from, but I was obsessed with it. For a long time, I was trying to figure out how to put it into a song because I loved it so much. And it speaks to the rest of the record, like you said, so I’m glad you picked up on it. I think the whole “better quality of suffering” idea, and also the hopefulness, comes from the act of actually doing the thing itself in general. It’s a bleak record – it’s written in earnest, but it’s very bleak. That being said, it’s created – we put so much effort into it. The artwork is bleak and ominous, but we also put hours and hours into. The videos, every aspect of it – there’s an insane amount of work put into it. And I think that’s the hopefulness. As embarrassing and infuriating as it can be to release music and play the content game and try to succeed in any capacity within the music industry – as depressing and stupid as it all feels – it’s also like: we’re doing it. That’s an amount of hope that we put into the world.
There are very few spots on the record that are actually positive or like, “You know, maybe it’s okay.” [laughs] Those positive spots are based in relationships, though. Anytime I write about love or happiness, it’s usually written about my wife or about my friends, and it’s like, “Well, that’s the happy thing.” You do this stuff, and you keep doing it because you love it – the band and the music stuff. The song ‘Cry Baby’ at the end of the record, it’s mostly just: I do all this stuff, and I don’t know if it was worth it, but I do know that I get to come home at the end of it to the person I love, and that means all that stuff brought me to this place. I’m so happy to be in this place with the person I love, I’m married to her, and I’m surrounded by friends that I love. I’m a very happy person. So maybe all of that stuff sucks and sucked [laughs], and I hate that I continue to do it or something, but I am actually really, really happy in life.
The whole thing, we always equate it to this: every album you put out, every song you put out, is like buying a lottery ticket. It’s as depressing as buying a lottery ticket and looking at the odds. But there’s also this little part of you that’s like, “Yeah, but I’m buying a lottery ticket. That means that I believe in some way that this thing could work out.” And it’s not just a lottery ticket because you could be a millionaire or something; it’s more like what you get out of the thing could change your life. I could get to keep doing this forever – that’s the biggest thing we hope for every time.
Musically, one thing that clearly stands out about the record is its abrasiveness. To what extent do you feel like that was driven by emotional versus stylistic impulses? Is that a distinction you can qualify?
For me, it was a stylistic choice that turned into an emotional one, I guess. Very early on, we talked about wanting it to be really loud, abrasive, and angry before we even got into writing lyrics or songs. I think that was the first thing we said about the record, that we wanted it to be experimental, loud, angry, and abrasive. I think Eric said something like, “When it’s soft, it’s beautiful and soaring, and when it’s loud, it’s angry, ominous, and scary.” So that’s what we tried to accomplish. But, of course, along the way, any plans like that fall apart when you start writing something, and you realize the song could benefit from a dynamic change that’s neither soft nor abrasive and crazy. A song like ‘Greyhound’, for instance, has a smashing, loud part in it, but it’s also a very long song that goes through lots of permutations.
You mentioned how taking stock of the band’s career was an important part of making Foxing. Having finished it, can you articulate how it made you reconsider or reappreciate what the band means to you, at the end of the day?
I don’t think it really changed how I thought of the band or what the band means to me. The band has meant different things to me over the years. When we started, it was just another band. I’ve been in several bands in my life, and I was 18 when we started. It was like, “Oh, here’s another one!” And then it became a band that tours, that puts out an album, then two albums. In my early twenties, it was like, “This is the only thing that matters to me. Anything else – relationships or anything like that – are second to this, and if I’m in a relationship with someone, they have to understand that this matters the most.” It was a ruiner of relationships, and I didn’t finish college because I had to drop out to do this. So that’s what the band meant for probably six years.
I think the biggest thing that happened – meeting my wife, and then eventually, the pandemic happened. And I was like, “Whoa, the biggest thing in my life right now, this band – it’s being forced to take a break.” Even within that break, we still wrote an album. [laughs] We were working on it every day, but we were forced to slow down in a lot of ways. When that happened, it put a lot of things in perspective for me where I had to take a lot of inventory of what this means to me in my life and how it informs the way I identify myself. The way I look at myself and say, “This is part of my identity: I play in this band, I write in this band, and I go on tour all the time.” But at a certain point, that goes away, whether because the band breaks up or because we age out of it. It will eventually need to stop. And we’ve known that, obviously, since the beginning; that’s always been a theme of our band. Someday it will stop. But I think I got to a point, especially in the pandemic, where it was like, “I’m not prepared for that in any way. I’m not prepared to look in the mirror and say, ‘Okay, I’m not in a band anymore,’ or ‘I’m not in Foxing.’”
I feel like, since then, I’ve been trying to grow as a person outside of just being a band member. And I think everybody has been doing that to some degree; I hope everybody’s able to do that. This album was the first time I was able to sort of write about that and to write about that sort of struggle. And I hope that it’s universal enough to translate to other careers or passions where you look at a big chunk of your life that you’ve dedicated towards something or someone and you’re like: How do I exist without this thing, even though I’m still existing with it? How can I prepare to not do this anymore? And was it all worth it? So it was a great opportunity for me to do that via writing and getting my thoughts out on the page. The way I look at it now is: this band is still my career, but I’m trying to look at it less as my entire being and more as my creative outlet and my job that I do with other people. We do it together, and that’s amazing, but then I go home and I actually do have a life outside of it. That’s what I’m trying to get to, at least.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
Foxing’s Foxing is out September 13 via Grand Paradise.
Foxing have dropped their self-titled album via their own Grand Paradise label. The follow-up to 2021’s Draw Down the Moon includes the previously released singles ‘Greyhound’ and ‘Hell 99’. “I think it’s the most introspective album in terms of our band itself,” Conor Murphy said in our interview. “It’s kind of the band looking in the mirror more so than me individually. With past albums, just lyrically speaking, there’s a lot of personal deep-dive stuff – whether it’s about growing up, sexuality, depression, religion, or whatever the themes are. With this album, I feel like the vast majority of the songs are still written personally, but they’re more about the experience of this band’s career.”
Nilüfer Yanya has released her third album, My Method Actor, via Ninja Tune. The follow-up to 2022’s PAINLESS was previewed by a string of singles, including ‘Like I Say (I runaway)’, ‘Method Actor’, ‘Call It Love’, ‘Mutations’, ‘Made of Memory’, and ‘Just a Western’. The singer-songwriter worked on the album in London, Wales, and Eastbourne with her longtime collaborator Wilma Archer. “This is the most intense album, in that respect,” she said in press materials. “Because it’s only been us two. We didn’t let anyone else into the bubble.” Read our review of My Method Actor.
Porches, the musical project led by NYC’s Aaron Maine, has returned with a new album called Shirt. Out now via Domino, the follow-up to 2021’s All Day Gentle Hold ! was preceded by the singles ‘Rag’, ‘Joker’, ‘Itch’, and ‘Crying at the End’. It’s “part angsty fantasy, part confessional melodrama,” according to a press release, “a rock album that oscillates between reality and make-believe to reflect both the innocence of suburban youth and the frayed reality of adulthood. A fusion of chaotic impulses, insatiable desires, and a perpetual yearning, Shirt plays with the tension between one’s person and persona – the weight of your dreams crashing up against your reality.”
Lunar Vacation have followed up 2021’s Inside Every Fig is a Dead Wasp with a new LP titled Everything Matters, Everything’s Fire. Produced by Drew Vandenberg and released on Keeled Scales, the record features the advance singles ‘Set the Stage’ – which came with a Finn Wolfhard-directed video – ‘Set the Stage’, ‘Sick’, ‘Tom’, and ‘Fantasy’. “Our last album was super produced, manicured,” guitarist and vocalist Maggie Geeslin said in a statement. “This one’s organic. We embraced mistakes; it made the work even better.”
Allegra Krieger has unveiled a new album titled Art of the Unseen Infinity Machine, following up last year’s I Keep My Feet on the Fragile Plane. Ahead of its release, the New York singer-songwriter shared the singles ‘Came’, ‘Never Arriving’, ‘Into Eternity’, and ‘Roosevelt Ave’. She wrote much of the album in the months that following her escape after multiple lithium batteries combusted and set fire to the e-bike shop on the ground floor of her Chinatown apartment building. The collection is “more outward looking, more questioning,” Krieger explained. “These songs are obviously extremely personal. But they also sucked the whole world in.”
Floating Points has released a new album, Cascade, via Ninja Tune. It follows Mere Mortals, Sam Shepherd’s first ballet score made in collaboration with the San Francisco Ballet, as well as Promises, his 2021 collaborative album with Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra. “I’m just constantly chasing challenges,” he remarked. “I always want to keep things moving and go all in on things that excite me. Whether that’s working with a 100-piece orchestra on a ballet or on a laptop on my own.” The singles ‘Birth4000’, ‘Del Oro’, ‘Key103’, and ‘Ocotillo’ arrived ahead of the release.
New York City-based songwriter and poet Wendy Eisenberg has issued a new LP, Viewfinder, via American Dreams. The follow-up to 2021’s Bent Ring includes the previously shared tracks ‘HM’ and ‘Lasik’. “A viewfinder is the window through which a photographer looks onto a preview of their image before it is captured,” a press release notes. “It’s easy to forget this in the age of the smartphone, to have been defamiliarized from the process of manipulating a proper camera. Some viewfinders, severed from the camera’s capturing lens, distort the angle by which a tableau is made legible. The prelude and its final form are thus related but non-identical. Our ways of seeing, of course, are always approximate. What we know of what we look at arrives in us slantwise, refracted through the singularity of experience.”
Suki Waterhouse’s latest album, Memoir of a Sparklemuffin, has arrived via Sub Pop. The 18-track double album, which follows 2022’s I Can’t Let Go, was promoted with the singles ‘My Fun’, ‘Faded’, and ‘Blackout Drunk’. “I came across the Sparklemuffin – which is wildly colored, does this razzle-dazzle dance, and its mate will cannibalize it if she doesn’t approve of the dance,” Waterhouse explained in a statement. “It’s a metaphor for the dance of life we’re all in. The title felt hilarious, ridiculous, and wonderful to me.”
Los Angeles shoegaze/noise rock outfit julie have come through with their debut LP, my anti-aircraft friend, out now via Atlantic Records. The band – Alexandria Elizabeth on vocals and bass, Keyan Pourzand on vocals and guitar, and Dillon Lee on drums – previewed the album with the singles ‘very little effort’ and ‘clairbourne practice’. “It’s us becoming more vulnerable, and more accurate with the emotional expression,” Lee said in press materials. “Some of the songs in the earlier days are a bit more guarded or timid. Now we’re more confident in what we want to do.”
Ginger Root – the California-based project of Cameron Lew – has released a new record, SHINBANGUMI. Featuring the early tracks ‘No Problems’, ‘Better Than Monday’, ‘All Night’, and ‘There Was a Time’, it marks his third full-length and first for new label home Ghostly International. “In terms of instrumentation and musicality, it’s the first time that I felt very confident and comfortable with what everything should be comprised of,” Lew explained. “On the more personal side, I’m coming out of the last four years of writing, touring, and living as a different person; SHINBANGUMI is a platform to showcase my new self.”
