Little Dragon have shared another single from their upcoming album Slugs of Love. It’s called ‘Gold’, and it follows previous cut ‘Kenneth’ and the title track. The band describes the song as “a reflection on the riches that money can’t buy.” Give it a listen below.
Slugs of Love is set for release on July 7 via Ninja Tune.
The London collective Speakers Corner Quartet have linked up with LEILAH for a new track, ‘Soapbox Soliloquy’. It’s the fifth and final offering from the upcoming LP Further Out Than the Edge, following ‘Geronimo Blues’ (featuring Kae Tempest), ‘Can We Do This?’ (with Sampha), ‘fix’ (featuring Tirzah), and ‘On Grounds’ (with Coby Sey). Check it out below.
“Working with the Speakers Corner crew was a real surprise and an absolute honour, they welcomed me in and have created a wonderful sense of community amongst their collaborators,” LEILAH said in a press release. “‘Soapbox Soliloquy’ is exactly that, speaking thoughts outwardly, which felt fitting with how SCQ make music.”
Further Out Than the Edge is due out June 2 on OTIH Records.
Boris and Uniform have unveiled ‘Not Surprised’, the second preview of their upcoming collaborative album Bright New Disease. Following ‘You Are the Beginning’, the track arrives with a music video directed by A.F. Cortes. Check it out below.
“I thought it would be appropriate for the last song on the album, and I imagined that it would be just as cathartic if we played it at the end of the show as well,” Boris’s Atsuo said of ‘Not Suprised’ in a statement.
“I’ve struggled with mental health issues for my entire life,” Uniform’s Michael Berdan added. “Although years of hard work, medication, and a support network help immensely at keeping the internal violence of my mind at bay, some days will always be a little worse than others. This song is about the inherent loneliness of those bad days. The level of antipathy I feel towards the entire human race as I’m forced to function around regular people who seem to be just enjoying their life goes beyond words, but I tried to say it here anyway.”
Of the video, A.F. Cortes commented: “I wanted (and had to) approach this piece from a visceral and experimental perspective. After listening to the song, I created a dark and surreal film reflecting the track’s themes and mood, leaving my comfort zone and turning some of my processes upside down– literally. The overarching theme of the piece is a cycle of violence; this is my interpretation of the music, not necessarily the authors’. We live in a never-ending cycle of violence; humans are as good at creating as destroying. In the video, the hunted becomes the hunter and then is hunted again. But who wins?”
Bright New Disease lands June 16 via Sacred Bones.
Hudson Mohawke and Nikki Nair have dropped a new collaborative EP called Set the Roof. The streaming version, out now via Warp, includes three tracks, while a six-track version is slated for release as a USB drive on July 7. Listen below.
Hudson Mohawke released his most recent album, Cry Sugar, last year.
Sylvan Esso have shared their own Live at Electric Lady EP, which was recorded at the famed New York studio. It includes new versions of five tracks from the band’s 2022 LP No Rules Sandy, as well as a cover of Low’s ‘Will The Night’, with accompaniment from the Attacca Quartet, Jenn Wasner, drummers TJ Maiani and Joe Westerlund, and guitarist Mason Stoops. Take a listen below.
“Both Amelia and I are huge fans of Low and were so sad to hear about Mimi passing,” Sylvan Esso’s Nick Sanborn said in a statement. “I can still remember hearing The Curtain Hits The Cast for the first time as a teenager and being immediately struck by ‘Anon’ – they were haunting and visceral in a way I hadn’t ever heard before, and I’m still listening to them all these years later. So this past January, when we were putting the setlist together for the Electric Lady session, I knew we were going to have the Attacca Quartet joining us and immediately thought of covering ‘Will The Night’ as a tribute to Mimi. It’s one of my all time favorites of their songs, beautiful and simple and timeless, a light in the darkness.”
Angelo De Augustine has shared a new song, ‘The Ballad of Betty and Barney Hill’, from his forthcoming album Toil and Trouble. Following lead cut ‘Another Universe’, the track is based on the story of Barney and Betty Hill, a couple from New Hampshire who claimed they were abducted by aliens. It arrives with an accompanying video directed by Clara Murray, which you check out below.
“While making the album I endured an experience so horrendous, torturous, and inexplicable that words fail me and explanation seems impossible,” De Augustine shared in a press release. “Within this period, I felt a close connection to Betty and Barney Hill and their story. I even started to believe that perhaps I had been abducted by some kind intergalactic being as they claimed occurred to them fifty-four years ago. When we experience something that doesn’t make logical sense, the mind looks to conjure any explanation no matter how outlandish it appears. We appear to crave understanding. Perhaps it makes us feel safe. The looming presence of the unknown is daunting and sometimes frightening. However, there is much we do not yet understand, some of which we will never comprehend.”
Murray added: “As with any alien abduction story, the case of Betty and Barney Hill left me unsettled, curious, doubtful. I wanted to capture that faltering feeling through repetitive, abstract events—as if the car is moving through time and space until time and space itself degrades around them—the characters, stuck in a loop, ultimately ending up in the same place they began. The setting is eerie, shifting, dreamlike and yet the invasion is corporeal—a haunting within flesh—as described by Barney Hill, ‘Oh those eyes. They’re there in my brain.'”
Brooklyn’s Foyer Red began as an email project during the pandemic, with the trio of singer/clarinetist Elana Riordan, singer/guitarist Mitch Myers, and drummer Marco Ocampo exchanging song ideas as they freely settled into their roles. A few months after forming, they got together in the same room and self-recorded their Zigzag Wombat EP before expanding into a five-piece with the addition of bassist Eric Jaso and guitarist/vocalist Kristina Moore. Last week, they came through with their debut album, Yarn the Hours Away, which was recorded with producer Jonathan Schenke at Figure8 Studios in Brooklyn. Exploratory and playful by nature, the record is framed as a collection of short stories but tangles them up like a conversation, more of an frantic free-for-all than a straightforward back-and-forth. Yet as zany and eclectic as it may sound, it ultimately feels more like an earnest heart-to-heart, teeming with bright, sneakily infectious, off-kilter melodies and rhythms that pulse and twist and wind their way around the body of a song. Despite the abundance of voices that sometimes talk over each other, the music never quite descends into total chaos, creating an atmosphere of warm exuberance that allows its wildly surrealist tales to come alive.
We caught up with Foyer Red for the latest edition of our Artist Spotlight series to talk about the development of the project, their collaborative process, making Yarn the Hours Away, and more.
Given that it started as a pandemic project, how do you look back on the genesis and development of Foyer Red over the past few years?
Mitch Myers: I feel like it was years in the making even before the pandemic. Elana, Marco, and I had tried to meet up and jam for years, and we were thinking about doing something for so long that it was like waiting for all the stars to align. It feels really cool to have Eric and Kristina come in, and it has transformed our sound so much. This album that we made together is the coolest thing I’ve ever been a part of, so I just feel super blessed to be making art with these people.
Elana Riordan: To me, Zigzag Wombat, was like the prequel to this pretty epic trilogy, the little origin story. But once we became a five-piece and started writing as a five-piece, I feel like we all felt like, “Oh, this is Foyer Red, and this is what we’re doing and how we’re moving forward.”
Marco Ocampo: There’s definitely a narrative that the band was a band with the EP, but the band was kind of just email stems and us as friends, because we weren’t really playing that much. It was more so just, “We’re all stuck in the house doing this,” and became a band once Eric and Kristina joined. That’s when we were like, “Oh, we’re a band.” So I really like the idea of a prequel, and then this is act one.
Was there a moment that convinced you this band was something special?
ER: Maybe when we were writing ‘Slander’. It felt like things clicked into place, like all of our parts had clicked into one another. Sometimes you make things and they push you to continue because they feel really interesting and exciting.
MO: For me it was when live shows came back. Our first show ever was a house show, and house shows don’t really happen too much in Brooklyn. It was like, “Wait, that’s why we do this – to play live.” Maybe not for everyone, but at least for me, that’s what makes things worth it, just the feeling that you have when you’re playing live shows with your friends.
Kristina Moore: I think because Eric and I came in later, when I realized that I felt really invested was like, “This feels like a unit that’s developing.” I was just playing a lot of what Mitch wrote for the EP live, just so that we could fill out the parts. And then I was given the green light to write to the song ‘Blue Pearl’, and I had so much fun doing it. I was like, “Oh shit, I just wrote a part for this song. I guess now I’m a part of the song.” I think it was more of a slow burn because then all five of us started writing together, but I feel like that was a moment for me.
Eric Jaso: My timeline’s different too because I was a later edition, but for me it was when we started making our new songs as a five-piece. ‘Etc.’, that single we released last year, that was a riff I had for a long time. We were just messing around in practice, I played it, and then Mitch really ran away with it. Over the next two weeks, it became our first new song we’d all written together. That’s when it felt real to me.
How did your collaborative process evolve going into, or maybe more during, the making of Yarn the Hours Away?
ER: I think towards the middle of writing the songs on Yarn the Hours Away, it felt like we were just coming up with things more in the studio, all being there together. A lot of times, someone would bring something and we’d all jam on it. But as we got more familiar with each other as players and started having a lot of fun writing together, especially through improvisation, we would just fall into the writing in a way that was not necessarily super intentional or with an end goal in mind, but just as an exploration. Part of the reason that the five of us work so well together is we’re all very interested in that exploration, and it leads us to new places all the time.
MO: There’s been a lot of self-growth that I’ve been able to see in all five of us individually because I’ve known everyone in this band for a very long time. As much as things are done collaboratively in the studio, we do love email chains and we all have the ability to write and record at home and send things to each other. It’s been really special to see individual growth, and then that bleeding over to group growth.
It’s interesting to me that the record starts with ‘Plumbers Unite!’, because your voices and the instruments all sort of chaotically merge together, and then there are moments where they’re more set apart. I feel like all of the songs are conversations in their own way, but how do you determine what kind of conversation each track will be?
ER: We don’t have any formula for any of this. I feel like we make sense of each individual song, and sometimes they happen differently. There have definitely been songs where Mitch has a very particular idea for the vocals, and we start from there. There’s a lot of songs where I lay down my vocals, and there’s still room – wherever you want to jump in is where you go, honestly. [laughs] None of us really care about having our toes stepped on. It’s all very much welcome.
Did you try to make sense of it in a more intentional way in the context of the full album, like when it came to sequencing?
ER: I wouldn’t say so, I don’t know.
EJ: I feel like we always knew we wanted to start with ‘Plumbers’ and end with ‘Toy Wagon’. It was like a sandwich. Those were always set in stone, and it took a little while to figure out the sequencing in between all that.
MO: Jonathan Schenke, who mixed and tracked the record, kind of floated the final track listing to us, and it just made sense.
ER: It didn’t at first. It’s so interesting how when you’re so tied to these songs, mixing up the order can make you feel, like, physical things. [laughs] We went back and forth so many times about the sequencing.
MO: I think that Mitch – and correct me if I’m wrong – whenever anything Foyer Red comes up, you immediately fall in love with it because of how much you love the band. Like, a track listing would come up and Mitch would be like, “I love it, it’s perfect!” [all laugh] And then the next day it’s like, “We should change this,” and Mitch would be like, “No, the last one was perfect.” And then the next he’d be like, “Actually, that‘s perfect.” And it just kept happening. It was really cute to watch, because I know it just comes from how much you love the band.
MM: I remember specifically, too, you switched the order of Zigzag Wombat a lot. Marco came up with that sequence, and I was so glued to it, and then realized that it was a whole different EP, but in the best way possible, with just changing a few songs around. I think what we did land on for the album sequence really feels like the exact right thing. I feel like it would have been a totally different album if the songs were in a different order.
Why did this one feel right?
ER: It makes me think of a book with several chapters, each song being its own chapter. There’s this push-and-pull of advancing the plot or introducing new characters and having these ups and downs where you really feel tied to the story.
MO: There’s some songs that are put right next to each other that there’s, like, little complements. That’s something I really liked that I feel like someone may never pick up on, but it’s something that always makes sense in my head. For instance, ‘Big Paws’ going right into ‘Toy Wagon’ at the end – both of the songs have very strong tambourine presences, and ‘Toy Wagon’ had this little tambourine jangle in the beginning.
ET: You always said that it felt like the tambourine was being passed to another person. I always liked that visual analogy, because it’s a lot of what this album is about, and also what we’re about as a five-piece collaborative unit – we’re, like, constantly passing the tambourine back and forth. [all laugh]
Because a lot of the writing on the album seems to rely on free association, I’m curious if it ever became a challenge to translate that into a group context. Do you feel like you have to decode or talk about things beforehand?
KM: This is going back a little bit in the conversation, but I think it relates to this – I kind of think that we do step on each other’s toes a little bit musically, and I like that. It feels like a really organic conversation. I listen a lot to Elana about where the vocals are going – sometimes the lyrics come later. But I want to always make sure that I’m taking direction from whatever she’s doing melodically. And Mitch, too, when he’s at the helm of the singing stuff. But there is stepping on toes and interruption, like a regular conversation, in the songs, and that’s what makes them really fun and special.
EJ: I think a big example is ‘Big Paws’ – you were saying you were thinking of an argument between you and your brother, weren’t you, Kristina?
KM. [laughs] Yeah.
EJ: Mitch and Kristina are having these interjections – they’re like different-shaped Lego pieces, but they still fit together and make this cohesive narrative and melody.
I noted down this line I really love from the song: “We’re chasing trains of thought – yours went left and mine to the waterpark.”
KM: Elana was really determined to make a waterpark happen in this song. [laughter]
What’s the story there?
ER: It’s kind of twofold. Definitely when we’re in the studio, I’m not great at coming up with random words on the spot, so I’ll often just babble in gibberish. But “waterpark” was the one word that kept coming up, and I was like, “That feels right.” But also, this was a song where we were discussing the narrative in the studio as we were playing it and writing it. We were talking about relationships where you’re so close with someone that a conversation can be so passionate and feel like this really heated back and forth, kind of like an argument. And it just made me think of this time at a waterpark with my childhood best friend, where we stood in line for like two hours for this one ride and played this hand game up to an insane level that I feel like no one else has ever played this hand game. [laughs]
KM: Is it the one where you do the… [shows hand pattern]?
ER: Yeah, Slide. Kristina and I played that game one night, and my hands were sore for like five days afterward. [laughs] Really intense Slide player.
MO: I feel like one day the book opened to be like, “We should talk about this song in a narrative.” Either Mitch or Kristina said, “Oh my gosh, it seems like our guitars are talking to each other.” And then it was like, “Oh, this song’s a big conversation,” and then it opened everything up.
Tell me about the title of the album, Yarn the Hours Away. There does seem to be a lot in these songs about wading through time.
ER: It’s hard to think about the songs as a group sometimes. I think that lyrically and narratively, I think about them a lot more on an individual level, but I also think that I write from a really temporal-based place. I get ideas about where things are in place and time, and I situate them there. Yarn the Hours Away comes from a lyric in ‘Toy Wagon’, and that song specifically is about time passing and looking back. I feel like it’s a good title for the album because you’re sort of meant to get lost in the songs and float away a little bit.
Mitch, there’s this line you sing on ‘Time Slips’ that seems to tie into this idea: “So I dance around a tune as the cosmos will me to.”
MM: I love what’s going on in ‘Time Slips’ between Kristina, Elana, and I. I think we all approach the subject from a slightly different angle or have a different point we’re making with what we’re saying. But my lyrics, specifically the one you’re referencing, is maybe the idea that we live in a way that’s deterministic versus free will. Like, how much of my behavior am I actually in control over? Is this just what I inevitably was going to do based on everything that’s happening all the time all around me that’s having a domino effect on everything? So in some ways, it’s feeling like time, you can’t really grasp onto it, and life is slipping away – not even feeling agency in the role you’re playing in life.
ER: I think that’s something that can be found across a lot of your lyrics.
MM: Yeah, I I feel like ‘Unwaxed Flavor Floss’ is a little that, too. I guess it’s just something I was thinking about a lot when I was writing my lyrics during this time period.
Can you each share one thing that inspires you about being in this band?
ER: This feels like kind of an obvious answer, but the past few months, we’ve mostly just been practicing the songs that we have written, and it’s only the last practice we had that we kind of fell into a jam, playing whatever. It just reminded me that that is the best part. We recorded the album in June 2022, so it’s been almost a year since we’ve written something, and to fall back into that, I was amazed all over again. You have five people in a room who are just being completely vulnerable and so present and willing to have the “conversation” through our instruments and our voices. It’s just such a beautiful thing. I think that I would do anything to be able to do that.
MO: As the one person in the band that doesn’t sing or play a string instrument, everyone is able to speak through their instrument so beautifully, and it really amazes me that everyone speaks through what they do with their hands or with their voice. I feel like it brings me closer to these people than I ever thought I’d be able to.
KM: Piggybacking off of both of that, everyone is so talented to a point where I’m just like, “How the fuck did you just do that thing?” [laughs] Being in this band has personally helped me fight my own imposter syndrome about being a “musician” or whatever. I think it’s a totally different way, kind of what Marco was saying, of getting to know a person, and us all getting to know each other, us giving each other so much space and listening… Last year was probably one of the most difficult and crazy years of my life, making what we were making, but making the record itself was actually pretty awesome and easy, just because we had such a good time doing it.
ER: I feel like everyone felt so validated through that process, too. As we were writing, we would all just constantly get so excited about what everyone else is doing. I think that is what pushed us forward, just being so supportive and excited.
MM: I’m inspired, as everyone said, by how bold and talented all my other collaborators. What Elana was saying about just being so supportive of each other, I feel like we’re so not trying to squeeze the creativity out of something to have a certain image. I don’t know what’s gonna happen next, and that’s kind of the most beautiful thing about our band. Who knows what our next song is going to sound like?
EJ: You can hear how everyone’s instrument is an expression of themselves. With all these different voices, it’s also some of the most intricate songs I’ve ever played on – this the first time I’ve ever played a song in, like, 7/4, and then go back to another time signature. I’m counting in my head – actively playing, not just jamming, but having to think about the song. It’s challenging, but fun.
MM: Also, Marco was talking about how all of us, because we’re playing string instruments or singing, speak through our instruments, but I feel like he is totally speaking through his drums. The percussion is one of the most amazing parts of our band; the rhythm complements the melodic information so much. I’m so inspired by every single person in this band, and it challenges me to try to be better, because I want to impress them. That’s something I don’t think I’d get in another group. I love being in this band with the exact people I’m in this band with.
KM: I’m so glad you said something about impressing people, because secretly I want to impress everyone in the band, too. [all laugh] Also, Marco secretly rips on bass, so maybe we’ll just do musical chairs and switch instruments for the next record or something.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
Foyer Red’s Yarn the Hours Away is out now via Carpark.
It details that someone suffering from an addiction will crave the substance and/or other behavioral habits, often leading to the need for interventions like depression treatment in Los Angeles. Not to mention disregarding other areas of life to fulfill their needs. So, if you feel like someone close to you is in turmoil but won’t reach out, here are a few ways, including hiring a national addiction specialist you can recognize an addiction.
The early stages of addiction are often harder to identify, as a person may not show the obvious signs of a developed addiction. However, it can be called out, and help can be sought earlier. Of course, this is the best-case scenario.
It’s important to note that anyone can be stopped in their tracks by an addiction, and it’s crucial that each individual gets the help that they need tailored to their situation. For example, The Key IOP is an addiction treatment center for professionals who specialize in those who have fallen prey to addiction due to stressful workloads and pressures. You can also opt for luxury IOP.
Here are some of the early clues to look out for:
In terms of social behaviors like drinking or smoking (which are legal and common among a large percentage of people), it can be harder to initially determine if there is a problem or not. For example, addictive behaviors may not result in a full-blown addiction and could be the product of an experimental phase brought on by stress or anxiety from daily life.
However, should this go further and be left untreated, a person can develop an unhealthy habit that can be destructive emotionally and physically.
After the early signs, someone may exhibit the following…
Once the experimental/early phase of addiction is complete, it can be easy to spot personality changes in someone. While they may be infrequent at first, the longer it goes on, they’ll become more and more regular. Some telltale personality and behavioral changes include:
This is both in terms of physical and mental health, as during an addiction, this can change dramatically. The most obvious physical differences are:
In terms of mental and emotional health changes, look out for the following:
Regardless of your background or addiction, there’s always help available. If you are worried about a loved one struggling, it’s important to address the issue as soon as possible to increase the chances of their recovery.
The World Series of Poker is among the most famous poker tournaments in the world. It’s not the only name in the game; with spinoffs like the World Series of Art Poker putting a twist on this classic competition. Launching in semi-secret, this game has been growing in fame by the year, with some big names vying for a place at the table.
Since its launch in 1970, The World Series of Poker has inspired many. The World Series of Art Poker wears its inspiration on its sleeves, working from the experience of the aptly named Chris Moneymaker. Starting as an accountant, Moneymaker watched the poker explosion of the early 2000s alongside artists Matt Johnson and Jonas Wood. Together, these men gathered to try the game out for themselves, quickly discovering what made poker so popular.
With California’s gaming scene they never found themselves wanting for players, as their connections would drive the group to discover like-minded individuals. Gallerists like Robert Berman, Angus Chamberlain, and Marc Richards would contribute their fascination and insight until the group had grown large enough to start their own games.
Following a successful showing, Wood reinvested his earning into renting a studio in which poker games could be hosted. Unofficially referred to as “the art game”, this competition would continue to add new names, finding its way into the world of music and acting. It turns out there’s a lot of crossover in these realms, so expansion was inevitable. When the world-famous Richard Prince became evolved, the floodgates opened, and everybody who was anybody wanted in.
Among the first celebrity players to jump into the game was Jack Black, well known for his work in both the acting and musical spheres. Despite a potential nominative advantage in the landscape of blackjack, Black was a huge fan, bringing band-mate Kyle Gass in on the tournament. Over time, more famous names like Ellen DeGeneres, Bruno Mars, and Leonardo DiCaprio would join the ranks, as the competition became too big to hide.
Of course, the limited and high-profile nature of the WSOAP meant that not everyone could find an invite. Those not privy to the invite might instead choose to raise their skills in online casinos for real money. These casinos like Ruby Fortune and Poker Stars similarly enjoy international reputations, only with ever-so-slightly lower barriers to entry. Offering bonuses like deposit matches, players on these sites can build experience on mobile or desktop, regardless of their intention to eventually join the WSOAP. Then, avoiding the $500 buy-in from the celebrity game is nice too.
As for the future of the WSOAP, that’s a question the team behind it must be wondering. Now that the cat’s out of the bag, they have to consider the potential financial reward of publicising the game against its success. This tournament appealed to figures like Richard Prince because it was secretive, so we have to believe there’ll be a push among some players to keep it this way. Only time will tell, and in the meantime, we probably won’t be expecting an invite.
Multi-disciplinary artist Francesca Brierley, aka heka, has signed to Practise Music, marking the announcement with a new single called ‘april (away)’. Listen to it below.
“In my mind we have two characters sitting in the grass, one of them is April,” heka shared in a statement. “She hides her hungry fingers in the other’s lap, full of flowers and feelings that she can’t speak of. A chorus of layered harmonies chants like a spell begging her to pull away from a love that has built itself around her like a city, like a cage.”
Back in 2021, heka released the (a) EP. Check out our Artist Spotlight interview with heka.
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