i think i better follow you around

Greg Puciato released his eagerly-awaited solo debut album, Child Soldier: Creator of God (Federal Prisoner), via Bandcamp, a full three weeks earlier than anticipated. The 15-song album arrived on all digital service providers on Friday, Oct. 9.

Child Solder: Creator of God’s early arrival follows an unauthorized album leak that began spreading through online communities. Puciato said of the leak and pivot to an earlier than anticipated release: “I can’t believe this is a thing someone thought would be cool to do to an independent artist in 2020, but some dipshit “reviewer” (we know who it was) leaked my record. Younger me would’ve put his name out there for everyone to see… but we’re going to use this as a chance to highlight the importance of being adaptable, flexible, and able to roll with the punches and call an audible. Shit happens and you need to be able to move quickly to adapt. Would I like everyone to go buy a digital copy now, or check it out on a streaming site next Friday? Yeah, that’d be cool. Vinyl will still be shipping around the original release date of Oct. 23rd. We still have some copies of the European variant and the Australian variant remaining … feel free to check ’em out here (https://gregpuciato.tmstor.es) and here (https://www.nervegas.com.au/GregPuciato), along with various other pieces of merch. We’re also cooking up something cool and related… I can’t really spill the beans on that yet….but will do so very, very soon. In the meantime, the stream for ‘Down When I’m Not’ is up now on all of the dsps. There’s no video because I’m smoked and there’s only so much time in a day and energy in a person, but it’s a fun little alternative summer song about feeling in love and feeling like you’re weightless, racing and being propelled because of it. Makes me think of when I was a little 13-year-old turd-muppet listening to music and crushing on someone. Quick little tidbit, the demo for this musically, which was pretty much the same structure as the final version, was done in 2010 or so, the chorus vocal melody is a spin-off of something else unreleased that I wrote in like 2002, and the other vocal melodies and all of the lyrics came just this last year. It’s kinda cool to hang onto stuff for that long and then have it all connect and come together, and still feel like me, considering all of the time periods it pulled from. It was always something that I knew I would get back to, I just didn’t really have the home for it, so now here it is. Hornbrook killed it on these drum fills and on the overall feel of the drums too, I’m pretty sure this is 180bpm and these fills are fuckin’ RIPPIN. Thanks for killing it, dude. Hey reader, I dunno if you run or not, but put this on in some headphones and go outside and just start running…that’s how this song makes me feel. Makes me wanna run off the road and into the sky. So to recap: fuck piracy, fuck that dude that leaked my record, here’s a song, support independent arts and culture(more now than ever), the album’s out now via Bandcamp and next Friday via streaming sites, some other shit is gonna be announced shortly afterwards, hope you’re all staying sane and safe, keep your wits about you and have some empathy and tolerance for one another, and stay intolerant of being turned against each other.”

Child Soldier: Creator of God was recorded in Los Angeles from the halcyon days of 2019 throughout the early, tumultuous months of 2020. The album was produced by Nick Rowe (Vampire Weekend, Haim) and mixed by Steve Evetts (The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Cure). Participating drummers are Ben Koller, Chris Pennie and Chris Hornbrook.

Here’s the video that was released for “Do You Need Me To Remind You”, directed and edited by Greg Puciato, Jim Louvau and Tony Aguilera:

The video for “A Pair Of Questions” was shot by Greg Puciato and Jesse Draxler (who also released an incredible album via Federal Prisoner):

The video for “Fire for Water” was also edited and directed by Draxler and Puciato:

Pallbearer celebrated the release of Forgotten Days (Nuclear Blast; https://www.pallbearerdoom.com/forgotten-days) with the release of “The Making of Forgotten Days”, a deep dive into the making of the eight-song album.

The new album Forgotten Days was released on October 23rd via Nuclear Blast.

Tracklist: 1. Forgotten Days 2. Riverbed 3. Stasis 4. Silver Wings 5. The Quicksand Of Existing 6. Vengeance & Ruination 7. Rite Of Passage 8. Caledonia

“It’s been inspiring creatively, I think we’ve written so much more material over the past year than ever before,” bass player/songwriter Joseph D. Rowland explains in the first moments of the interview. “We were able to really let some of the lyrics develop earlier in the process than we have in the past. We were able to really focus in on ideas, develop riffs, with lyrical patterns in mind, themes in mind… this time there was so much more opportunity to tightly hone in on those things.”

Here’s the video that was released for “The Quicksand Of Existence”, directed by Ben Meredith:

The Randall Dunn (Sunn O))), Earth, Johan Johannson) produced album was recorded at Sonic Ranch Studios in West Texas. Forgotten Days (https://www.pallbearerdoom.com/forgotten-days) is available in a number of limited edition vinyl variants with physical bundles available via both the Nuclear Blast and Pallbearer webstores, as well as digitally and on CD/cassette.

Tindersticks have released a new song.

Yes the song, “You’ll Have To Scream Louder”, is a cover from the band Television Personalities and it will be included in their upcoming album “Distractions” due out in February via City Slang.

Stuart Staples said this in a statement:

Late may, early June, 2020 was a twitchy and angry time for many of us. There was a growing agitation inside of me.

I woke on a Saturday morning with no plans but just this fucking Television Personalities song going round in my head, it pushed me into the studio.

4 or 5 hours later I had made the basis of this recording, though I had to wait for windows of opportunity within our confinement to work with the band to bring it to a conclusion.

I have loved the TVPs since buying the Bill Grundy e.p. with its photocopied sleeve on one of my regular after school bus trips to the Virgin record shop in a basement on King Street, Nottingham.

Some years later, 1984, I was living around the corner on the 17th floor of Victoria Centre flats, they swayed in the wind. I was working a few days at a local record shop and The Painted Word was released. It became at the soundtrack to that semi-slum, those times. I was 19. 

To be young in the early 1980’s there was much to be angry about, battles to be fought – Thatcher, racial and gender injustice – and (one of the motivations for this song) nuclear disarmament. Although we may not have thought those battles were ever won, we believed we had helped push things in a different direction, that changes were made. 

In the spring of 2020 we were shown painfully that these battles are ongoing.

After 8 years Quakers are back with Quakers II: The Next Wave.
Quakers is Supa K (Katalyst), 7STU7 and Fuzzface (Geoff Barrow) as executive producer, along with an ever-expanding cast of MCs they invite along on the adventure.

Quakers II: The Next Wave was released via Stones Throw November 13^th.

The tracklist:

1. Electrify
2. Start It Like This (feat. Phat Kat)
3. One Of A Kind (feat. Guilty Simpson)
4. Sell Your Soul
5. Bare Essentials (feat. The Niyat)
6. A Myth (feat. Sageinfinite)
7. This Station (feat. Jeremiah Jae)
8. Alive
9. Heat On It (feat. Grandmilly)
10. Double Jointed (feat. The Koreatown Oddity)
11. Who Dat (feat. Chester Watson)
12. Radiola (feat. Radioactivists)
13. Gun Control (feat. The Black Opera)
14. We Tried
15. Duck & Cover (feat. Guilty Simpson, Cysion)
16. Morphine (feat. Bob Banner)
17. Approach With Caution (feat. Sampa The Great)
18. The Streets
19. Looking For Love (feat. Denmark Vessey)
20. Fa Real (feat. Jeru The Damaja)
21. A Quick Fix (feat. YC, Super Vic)
22. Test My Patience (feat. Jonwayne)
23. Too Many To Count
24. Greatness (feat. Nolan The Ninja)
25. Hit List (feat. Cazeaux O.L.S.O)
26. Another Kind Of War (feat. Jeremiah Jae)
27. Leaflet Drops
28. One O’clock
29. All Of It (feat. Boog Brown)
30. Machine Room (feat. Fat Ray)
31. Pain (feat. Sav Killz)
32. The Line (feat. Cavalier)
33. Blocks (feat. Dionté Boom)

Quakers via Stones Throw:
“Since the 2012 release of Quakers’ debut LP, “Katalyst has evolved into Supa K, 7STU7 has taken up intergalactic smuggling, and Fuzzface only communicates telepathically, silently overseeing the Quakers operation from afar.” True to the group’s collaborative spirit, the three producers invite over thirty rappers from the Stones Throw stable and beyond to contribute to Quakers II: The Next Wave. The new wave of Quakers MCs includes The Koreatown Oddity, Guilty Simpson, Sampa the Great,  Jonwayne, Jeremiah Jae, Chester Watson, Boog Brown, and many more.  All adding their weight to the sonic arsenal. Much like Quakers’ self-titled debut, The Next Wave is loud, unapologetic and blunted. It’s also more explicitly political, with songs that speak directly to systemic corruption, racism, and the climate crisis. The artwork for The Next Wave, created by graphic novel artist Joe Currie, reflects this renewed focus on “interplanetary eco battles.” “The project has evolved organically, similar to last time,” explains Supa K, but “the world has changed and the music reflects that. We’ve all had enough of the global corruption and all those profiting from it.” Quakers leave us with this quote from the late, great Left Rev McD: “We have killed the very earth beneath our feet, yet we still kill each other and talk of the future.” 
The time for change is now.

They also released these promo videos:

Approach with Caution (feat. Sampha The Great):

This Station (feat. Jeremiah Jae)

Double Jointed (feat. The Koreatown Oddity)

Mr. Bungle, who recently released their first album in over two decades, The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo (Ipecac Recordings, https://lnk.to/MBWrath), have partnered with acclaimed Director Derek Cianfrance (“The Place Beyond The Pines,” “Blue Valentine”) for the band’s “Sudden Death” video.

“If you lived in Lakewood, Colorado, during the early 1990s, there’s a slim chance you would have seen and heard a 16 -year-old boy driving slowly around town in a white, 1974 Mustang II, with his windows rolled down, disrupting the neighborhood by blaring the music of Mr. Bungle. That 16-year-old kid was me, and that music that I listened to, over and over and over again, set the bar for my life as an artist,” explained Cianfrance. “So, 30 years later, when I got a call from Mike Patton asking me to direct a music video for one of the songs on their new album, The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo, I questioned whether my life was really a dream… I informed Mike that I had never directed a music video before, but he wasn’t dissuaded. I listened to the album and asked if I could work with the song “Sudden Death.” It reminded me of the feelings of angst I carried throughout my youth while growing up in the shadow of a looming, forbidding thermonuclear war. I decided I could make a short film (well, not so short – the song is almost 8 min!) about these fears that haunted me. I was also interested in meditating on the theme of desensitization in modern society, where citizens are gradually and systemically numbed to the possibility of cataclysmic consequences. Since the song was written in the mid-‘80s, I determined that the video should feel like it was made during that time and imagined it as some sort of rediscovered relic. Shooting during a global pandemic proved a fitting backdrop to the malaise of the song. It also presented a unique challenge as I was too nervous to work with actors – so I had to come up with another solution. making this video with a small team of trusted collaborators, and working with my life-long heroes, was nothing short of a total dream come true.”

Cianfrance and Patton came to know one another after working together on the 2013 film “The Place Beyond The Pines.” Cianfrance said, in an interview with Pitchfork, that once he shot the film, he knew the only person who should compose its score was Patton. Cianfrance has also incorporated music from Patton’s discography into his current project, HBO’s “I Know This Much Is True.”

“When we first worked together, he told me he was a fan, and I didn’t believe him,” said Patton. “Years later, he told me he gravitated to the most difficult tunes on Bungle records (“Dead Goon,” “Merry Go Bye Bye,” “Goodbye Sober Day”) so him choosing “Sudden Death” for this iteration of Bungle actually made perfect sense. The least commercial and longest song? That’s where his ears and eyes go.”

Chester Watson has released his latest album “A Japanese Horror Film”.

Tracklist:

01 – Life Wrote Itself
02 – Transportation Interlude (feat. Kiminori Chiba)
03 – Taxi Ghost (feat. Ria and Sima Itayim)
04 – Porcelain Geisha (feat. FIfi Rong)
05 – Yokai (feat. Psymum, Kanisono, Fifi Rong & Kent Loon)
06 – Witch Hunter (feat. K Raydio)
07 – Kushiro (feat. K Raydio)
08 – Camp (feat. Kent Loon and SIma Itayin)
09 – Teleportation (feat. K Raydio)
10 – Nujabes
11 – Atlantic Interlude (feat. Manijanai)
12 – Atlantis (feat. Salami Rose Joe Louis)
13 – Hypnagogic Interlude (feat. Manijanai)
14 – Ronin
15 – Sunken Place (feat. Max Wonders and Sima Itayin)
16 – Fog (feat. Dua Saleh)
17 – Daydreams (feat. Dua Saleh)

We saw Chester Watson last year, when touring was still a thing, he supported Puma Blue at the Casbah in San Diego. And while we spoke briefly about the influence from Flying Lotus and the Brainfeeder label he mentioned that his forthcoming album did have additional inspirations and that it was something that he was really excited to release.
With his earlier releases the influences from Earl Sweatshirt and MF Doom were palpable and easy to see and now with his “A Japanese Horror Film” it would be kind of easy to think of some members from the Wu-Tang, from the fists of RZA to the swords of GZA.

The album, for lack of better terms, is a trip. An astral trip. A projection. It’s an album that needs to be listened from beginning to end, don’t skip a moment and ride the album out. 
It’s an album that feels researched and that it takes the Japanese culture seriously, it’s not just kitsch or chic for the sake of being it, there’s an implied reverence to the samurai because there’s a care for it.

The album feels like a soundtrack. Maybe, like an alternate score to Ghost Dog or a follow up to The Bride.

Here’s a video for the opening song “Life Wrote Itself”:

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	Reports out of Jerome, Ariz. confirm the impending arrival of Existential Reckoning, a 12-song album from the special agents operating under code name Puscifer. The release is scheduled for an Oct. 30 arrival via Alchemy Recordings/Puscifer Entertainment/BMG.   The agents, Mat Mitchell (guitar, bass, keys) and Carina Round (vocals, keys), with agent-in-training Maynard James Keenan (vocals, stories) a.k.a. Dick Merkin, preview the forthcoming release with “The Underwhelming”: https://youtu.be/M_gHgTkbdyg In a report to commanding officers, the trio said: “In the Summer of 2016, we received a call from Hildy Berger, Billy D’s loving wife. [REDACTED]. Billy D, rumored to have been carrying nothing but a bottle of wine and a mysterious briefcase, had disappeared without a trace somewhere in the high deserts of the Southwestern United States.   Rumors of alien abduction were at the forefront throughout the dark web chatter. Therefore traditional methods of tracking a lost and hopeless drunkard in a dirty leisure suit were not an option. [REDACTED]. We hypothesized the only way to locate the subject was to [REDACTED] construct traversable bridges between intuition and technology, requiring us to explore the metaphorical mycelium between Math and Passion, Art and Order, and Hope and Proof. Through these methods [REDATED] we are able to pinpoint the exact location of both Billy D and the mysterious briefcase.”   The agents recruited back-up: Greg Edwards (an experienced Agent having worked in operations classified as Failure and Autolux; bass, guitar, keys), Gunnar Olsen (drums) and Sarah Jones (drums). Existential Reckoning was produced by Mat Mitchell and Puscifer. The album was recorded and mixed by Mat Mitchell at Puscifer Studios in North Hollywood, Calif.   Existential Reckoning track list:   1) Bread and Circus 2) Apocalyptical 3) The Underwhelming 4) Grey Area 5.1 5) Theorem 6) UPGrade 7) Bullet Train To Iowa 8) Personal Prometheus 9) A Singularity 10) Postulous 11) Fake Affront 12) Bedlamite   Album pre-orders (https://Puscifer.lnk.to/ExistentialReckoning) include a number of limited edition vinyl variants including pure clear (indie retail exclusive), high dispersion gold, a wine & vinyl bundle featuring “oakwood” and trans red with black swirl versions as well as translucent tri-color clear blend (Revolver exclusive). Digital pre-orders include an instant download of both “Apocalyptical” (https://youtu.be/Hj_bTbfAEsc) and “The Underwhelming.”   Born somewhere in the Arizona desert, Puscifer is an electro-rock band, multimedia experience, traveling circus, and alien abduction survivors. The group’s catalog consists of three full-length studio albums—“V” is for Vagina [2007], Conditions of My Parole [2011], and Money Shot [2015]—in addition to a series of EPs and remixes. Beyond the core trio of Maynard James Keenan [vocals], Mat Mitchell [guitar, production], and Carina Round [vocals, songwriting], the group’s ever-evolving ecosystem encompasses a cast of characters such as Billy D and his wife Hildy Berger, Major Douche, Special Agent Dick Merkin, and many more. Meanwhile, the moniker’s origins can be traced to a 1995 episode of the HBO classic Mr. Show where Keenan first utilized the name “Puscifer.” Entertainment Weekly christened them, “Exceptionally groovy,” and Revolver fittingly described them as “indescribable.” Renowned for an immersive live show, the group’s performances blur the lines between concert and theater, traversing the dusty American Southwest with Billy D and Hildy or the sweaty squared circle with Luchadores. They’ve brought this to life everywhere from Coachella to Bonnaroo. On their 2020 debut for Alchemy Recordings/BMG, entitled Existential Reckoning, Puscifer track Billy D back to the desert and, just maybe, uncover the truth about aliens once and for all.   # # #

The Kills have announced the release of a new album consisting of B-Sides, demos, rarities and covers titled “Little Bastards” out on Domino Records. The songs date back from the band’s first 7-inch singles in 2002 through to 2009.

The tracklist:
01. ‘Superpowerless’ (from ‘Last Day Of Magic’ 7″, 2008)
02. ‘Passion Is Accurate’ (from ‘Love Is A Deserter’ CD single, 2005)
03. ‘Kiss The Wrong Side’ (from ‘Cheap And Cheerful’ 7″, 2008)
04. ‘Raise Me’ (unreleased demo, 2009)
05. ‘Night Train’ (‘Midnight Boom’ digital bonus track, 2008)
06. ‘Half Of Us’ (from ‘No Wow’ 7″, 2005)
07. ‘London Hates You’ (from ‘Tape Song’ 7″, 2005)
08. ‘I Call It Art’ (from ‘Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited Compilation’, 2006) 09. ‘Forty Four’ (from ‘Black Balloon’ 7″, 2009)
10. ‘Love Is A Deserter’ (recorded for XFM, 2005)
11. ‘The Search For Cherry Red’ (from ‘Pull A U’ 7″, 2003)
12. ‘Magazine’ (from ‘Love Is A Deserter’ 7″, 2005)
13. ‘Blue Moon’ (from ‘Future Starts Slow’ 7″, 2009)
14. ‘Jewel Thief’ (from ‘Fried My Little Brains’ 7″, 2002)
15. ‘Baby’s Eyes’ (from ‘The Good Ones’ 7″, 2003)
16. ‘I Put A Spell On You’ (Screamin’ Jay Hawkins cover, 2009)
17. ‘Run Home Slow’ (from ‘The Good Ones’ CD Single, 2005)
18. ‘Weed Killer’ (from ‘Black Balloon’ 10″, 2009)
19. ‘The Void’ (from ‘No Wow Expanded Edition CD’, 2005)
20. ‘Sugar Baby’ (from ‘Fried My Little Brains CD single, 2003)

They’ve shared the video for ‘Raise Me’ which was a previously unreleased demo from the Midnight Boom era. The video was directed by the Kills themselves, Jaime Hince and Allison Mosshart:

Jamie Hince explained that the album’s title comes from the nickname he and Allison Mosshart gave a drum machine they used during their early days:
“It was a Roland 880, which isn’t strictly a drum machine – it’s a sequencer, and an eight-track recorder, with its own drum machine built in, and that’s what we’d record all our beats on,” he said.

LNZNDRF is Bryan & Scott Devendorf and Ben Lanz. The Davendorf brothers are of course the rhythm section of The National and Lanz is a touring member of the National and of Beirut. They’ve previously released their self titled album on 4AD back in 2016.

They’ve just released an EP ‘To A Lake’ with an accompanying video for the song “Aguas Frescas” directed by Indira Dominici.

https://youtu.be/Kj8CWMWnUNw

“It is difficult in the moment of free-form, group composition to parse out where inspiration is coming from, but then in hindsight, under the editorial “knife”, as these musical things take shape, it becomes clear, as is especially the case with this EP and specifically the song and film “Aguas Frescas”. Our band obsession with Indira Dominici photographic examinations of water, which we had decided needed to be involved in the artwork for our next release, long before these writing/recording sessions, were clearly inspiring us in the studio. Her introspective, heartwrenchingly humanistic Super 8 film capturing of water, from her childhood home in Brasilia, to the saturated color of the coastline in Sicily, to scrambling rocks in Iceland along with our daily, early evening recording swim breaks in Barton Springs, the naturally spring fed “pool” in Austin, TX, where we were holding these sessions with engineer Bella Blasko, were clearly guiding our sonic journey. Barton Springs in the autumnal dusk was our’s, as free of crowds, we could fully give ourselves to its motions, dropping our overly sonically stimulated bodies into the seemingly bottomless swirl of dark colors in the early evening’s low light. From these syncronistic energies, our recording sessions and Indira’s work, it was only natural to collaborate with her towards a film; our water inspired music with her immersive depictions of water and the frontiers between dry land and immersion” said the band.