i think i better follow you around

The National have shared their third single, “Eucalyptus”, off their upcoming album “First Two Pages Of Frankenstein” out April 28th via 4AD.

TRACKLIST:

1. Once Upon A Poolside (feat. Sufjan Stevens)
2. Eucalyptus
3. New Order T-Shirt
4. This Isn’t Helping (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)
5. Tropic Morning News
6. Alien
7. The Alcott (feat. Taylor Swift)
8. Grease in Your Hair
9. Ice Machines
10. Your Mind Is Not Your Friend (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)
11. Send for Me

The video for the song was directed by Chris Sgroi. Bryce Dessner said this in a press release: I had sent the song to Berninger so long ago that he’d forgotten about it, but Berninger wrote lyrics a few hours before the show and asked to perform it that night. “We rehearsed it twice without ever having had a demo and played it to the audience that night, and what you hear on the album was partially recorded during that performance. It’s got this raw, immediate feeling, and it made sense to leave the rough edges instead of trying to perfect them.”

Berninger said this about the lyrics: “Throughout the record there’s a lot of looking into the abyss and wondering if a relationship has run its course. “Eucalyptus” is about a couple splitting up their possessions after a breakup — like, “What are we going to do with the spring water we get delivered, what’s going to happen to all these plants?” It’s about all those little things you end up having to think about when you’ve become so connected to someone'”

David Tedeschi and Martin Scorsese co-directed, “Personality Crisis: One Night Only”, which is a documentary about David Johansen (New York Dolls).

“This film tells the definitive story of the culture-defying David Johansen, notorious ’70s glam punk lead singer of the New York Dolls. Framed around an intimate cabaret performance filmed in January 2020 at New York City’s storied Café Carlyle, PERSONALITY CRISIS: ONE NIGHT ONLY reveals Johansen’s enormous influence, transcending the walls of music as a window into the art and cultural evolution of New York City.”

Scorsese shared this via a statement: “I’ve known David Johansen for decades, and his music has been a touchstone ever since I listened to the Dolls when I was making Mean Streets,” Scorsese said in a statement. “Then and now, David’s music captures the energy and excitement of New York City. I often see him perform, and over the years I’ve gotten to know the depth of his musical inspirations. After seeing his show at the Café Carlyle, I knew I had to film it because it was so extraordinary to see the evolution of his life and his musical talent in such an intimate setting.”

Burial Clouds have shared the first single, “Cloudsplitter”, off their upcoming album “Last Days Of A Dying World” out May 12th via Church Road Records.

TRACKLIST:
01. Cloudsplitter
02. Beirut Shores
03. Seawall
04. Ether Fields
05. Death, Emperor

Burial Clouds were originally an instrumental band, but have recently been joined on vocals by actor/musician Michael Malarkey (Vampire Diaries, Project Blue Book, Westworld).

With roots firmly planted in the heavy metal traditions of the Pacific Northwest, Burial Clouds’ music bears a dim light in a dark land; an emotional response to the human experience of life in a decaying empire.

Drawing influences from doom, psychedelia, post-metal, and grunge, Burial Clouds‘ well crafted songwriting is ambitious in sonic scope. Heavy without being cliche, complex without falling into self-indulgence and epic without pretension.

The band has a couple of shows lined up: 3/25 – Seattle, WA – Substation. 3/26 – Portland, OR – High Water Mark. 8/17 – Bristol, UK – Arctangent Festival.

Lanterns On The Lake have shared the first single, “The Likes Of Us”, off their upcoming album out June 2nd via Bella Union.

TRACKLIST:

1. The Likes of Us
2. Real Life
3. Vatican
4. String Theory
5. Thumb of War
6. The Saboteur
7. Locust
8. Rich Girls
9. Last Transmission

Hazel Wilde said this about the album: “Writing songs requires a certain level of self-indulgence, and songwriters can be prone to dwelling on themselves. Motherhood made me aware of having a different stake in the world. I’ve got to believe that there’s a better way and an alternative future to the one we’ve been hurtling towards. I’ve also got to believe that I could be better as a person, too.”

Wilde also shared this about having Phillip Selway joining in on drums: “Philip brought an energy to the songs that reignited our belief in them. Within a few weeks we had a whole other version of the album and things felt very different. We had changed the destiny of the record.”

The band will go on a UK tour starting in November. No news yet on a USofA (or Tijuana) tour yet.

Esben and the Witch have shared the second single, “True Mirror”, off their upcoming album “Hold Sacred” out May 12th.

A true mirror is a mirror that shows you as you really are.

This is a woman in black and white confronting her reflection, seeking the truth in the grey fog where self-loathing meets self-love.

Embrace the shadow self.

Via a previous press release the band had shared this about the album: “This record was born in a hot mosquito summer in a terracotta villa an hour outside of Rome. It bloomed in winter on an abandoned beach in a fishing village close to Porto, overlooking the Atlantic. It found form in a gîte in the middle of the French countryside and grew in a ramshackle old house, full of old cloaks and books in rural Germany.

Protect what is precious. Hold Sacred.”

Massimo Pupilo, Malcolm McDowell & Gabriele Tinti have shared they will release “Songs Of Stone” on March 10th via Subsound Records.

TRACKLIST:
1. No Respite
2. A Shadow Sparkles On The Ancient
3. At The Bottom Of The Stone
4. Between The Eyes
5. Heavy In The Bowels

Below you will find a small snippet of what to look forward to in the album.

“Songs Of Stone” is a musical project based on several epigrams, elegies and laments that Gabriele Tinti composed inspired by epigraphs from the ancient world. It arises from the wish to sustain the necessary link that joins us to the rituals of the past. The inscription on durable material was one of the languages the ancients used to oppose the transience of oral expression, wishing to conserve their words in time. The readings are made by Malcolm McDowell.

Tinti’s words and the actor’s vocal performance are put together by Massimo Pupillo in a work intended to transgress the confines between reality and ancient mythology. Massimo has created an imaginary landscape, creating a visionary theatre for Gabriele Tinti ‘s words, a sound world born and based on the precise and eloquent vocal timbre of Malcolm McDowell Using a plethora of different sources, various synthesis, samples of eastern European choirs, processing McDowells’ voice, ‘Songs of Stone’ will bring the listener in a twilight zone between dreams and mythology, where remote past and future horizons meet.

Dave Lombardo has shared the news of the release of his first solo album, “Rites Of Percussion”, which will come out May 5th via Ipecac.

TRACKLIST:

1. Initiatory Madness
2. Separation from the Sacred
3. Inner Sanctum
4. Journey of the Host
5. Maunder in Liminality
6. Despojo
7. Interfearium
8. Blood Let
9. Warpath
10. Guerrero
11. Vicissitude
12. Omiero
13. Animismo

The first single off the album is “Journey Of The Host” with a video done by Oleg Rooz.

Lombardo shared this about the album and the process of creating it: “Mike Patton originally gave me the idea as far back as 1998. He introduced me to Tito Puente’s Top Percussion album. I was already familiar with Tito and was a bit shocked that Patton was so musically diverse, and that he surrounded himself with musicians of the same mindset. That inspired me. I have had ideas that I’ve recorded on cassette over the years, but Patton kept insisting that I had to do a ‘drum album.’ So, the idea behind the album is years in the making. I just had to find the right time—for me—to do it. When the pandemic hit, I thought, ‘Well, I can’t tour now. I immediately started working on the record. It was one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had. I had my studio, all my drums. Nothing was in storage for once! My home became a place where I could be free and creative. On the one hand, the touring part of my livelihood had been taken away, but on the other, I finally had the time to educate myself on different software and recording techniques. It was a very educational and gratifying experience.”

SQÜRL have announced the release of their debut album, “Silver Haze”, out May 5th via Sacred Bones.

TRACKLIST:

1. Berlin ‘87
2. The End of The World
3. Garden Of Glass Flowers [feat. Marc Ribot]
4. She Don’t Wanna Talk About It [feat. Anika]
5. Il Deserto Rosso [feat. Marc Ribot]
6. John Ashbery Takes A Walk [feat. Charlotte Gainsbourg]
7. Queen Elizabeth
8. Silver Haze

The first single off the album is for the track opener, “Berlin ’87”, with a video directed by Jem Cohen. Cohen shares this about the video: “Roaming Central and Eastern Europe soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall, backpack crammed with Super 8 cameras, I was deeply moved by the landscape. I couldn’t have guessed some of the footage would surface over a quarter-century later in a film for Jim and Carter’s band. They work hard to forge their expansive sound, with its indomitable beat and secret harmonics. Glad I had that backpack, and to be of service.”

SQÜRL said this about working with Cohen: “SQÜRL is so happy to have a film by Jem Cohen to accompany the first single, ‘Berlin ’87,’ from our new album Silver Haze. He’s one of our favorite filmmakers, and with his magical hands and eyes, he somehow captures the most evocative details that most people don’t even notice. The images he has chosen and shaped so perfectly evoke the feeling of our music, and then elevate it to another level. Our big thanks to you, Jem!”

SQÜRL is Jim Jarmusch and Carter Logan and they’ve been scoring Jarmusch movies since “The Limits Of Control” and they’ve released a few EP’s, yet this is their first proper album.

The album was produced by Randall Dunn, who’s worked with Boris, Sunno))), Cloud Nothings, Marisa Nadler and many others. The album features collaborations with Marc Ribot, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Anika.

SQÜRL has not announced any tour dates yet. They did just finish a UK/EU tour so hopefully one will be announced soon.

James Ellis Ford (Simian Mobile Disco, The Last Shadow Puppets) has shared the first single, “I Never Wanted Anything”, off his upcoming solo album “The Hum” out May 12th via Warp Records.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Tape Loop #7”
02 “Pillow Village”
03 “I Never Wanted Anything”
04 “Squeaky Wheel”
05 “The Yips”
06 “Golden Hour”
07 “The Hum”
08 “Caterpillar”
09 “Emptiness”
10 “Closing Time”

The video for the track was created / directed by Trevor Jackson. James Ellis Ford shared this about the song: “I feel incredibly lucky that I’ve managed to keep doing what I do. When I play music and I get the feeling that it’s going to be amazing? That’s literally the buzz that I chase every day.”

Regarding the the album he shared this: “I was making tracks and thinking, ‘Maybe I’ll send this to Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys).’” Ford says. “It genuinely did cross my mind that I could make an album with a lot of guest features, but it just felt braver for me to do it on my own. With technology it’s easy to fix ‘mistakes’ after the event, and I really hate this point we’ve arrived at in recording history,” he says. “So I didn’t put things in time and didn’t even edit on the computer. Because of the approaching AI nightmare, humanness is the main positive quality you can add to a record”.

No tour dates have been announced yet for the USofA (nor Tijuana).