i think i better follow you around

July 6th, 2006 TV On The Radio releases “Return To Cookie Mountain”.

Before the album was released the mammoth of a single that was “Wolf Like Me” had already been played almost everywhere, BUT, not everywhere yet. With that song they brought the art rock and the post punk indie rock to the forefront. While it might not have been the most popular song fr.that genre it was clearly the most important one. The one other musicians listened to. The one other artists gushed over. The one.

Yet, that wasn’t the only thing that separated TVOTR from the rest of their contemporaries. “Return To Cookie Mountain” also featured David Bowie on vocals on “Province” who had been a massive fan since hearing their EP ‘Young Liars’ at a photo shoot he was doing back in 2004. And Bowie being Bowie kept in touch with Dave Sitek. As Sitek tells the story: “When we started making Return to Cookie Mountain, I dropped off a disc of demos for him. About a month later, he wrote to me and said, “I really love this ‘Province’ track, the lyrics and the strange choice of sounds. This is really incredible.” And without even thinking about it, I said, “Well, you should come to the studio and be on it.” Which was kind of a ballsy move, and he said, “OK, I’ll be there sometime next week.” He showed up at my studio in Williamsburg. Tunde couldn’t get his head around it. I couldn’t either. We were both, “What the hell is going on?” David was an absolute gentleman. He was super generous with his time and down to earth. He was wearing New Balance sneakers and talking to us about music. He listened to everything. He was into Lightning Bolt, like I was, and I talked to him about Górecki’s third symphony. Usually when you’re in a studio, you hear the vocals and have an idea of what to do next. But he’d sing the parts and you’d go, “Uh, that sounds like a finished record.” But true to form, he was like, “You know what you’re doing, so do you think it’s right?” He wasn’t trying to turn TV on the Radio into Bowie. He just wanted to participate and honor the song and be a part of it.”

Kazu Makino, of Blonde Redhead, lent her vocals for the song “Hours”. However, that wasn’t the only collaboration that song had. El-P, before Run The Jewels, did a remix of that song and even though some remixes are worst than others this one completely blew the lid off form the track.

These are only 3 tracks so far. We haven’t even spoken about “Dirtywhirl” or “Blues From Down Here”.

“A Method”, “Let The Devil In”, “I Was A Lover” and “Playhouses” were also jawdroppingly amazing and unique on their own way.

“Tonight” and “Wash The Day Away” are stunning closing tracks.

This same year they went on an amphitheater tour where they were playing with Peter Murphy and Nine Inch Nails, since NIN had released their “comeback” album ‘With Teeth’. Within this tour sometime they would perform some songs together and below there’s a clip of TVOTR playing “Dreams” with vocals by Trent Reznor and Peter Murphy.

When this album came out it completely changed me (again). Mind you that the first 5 times I heard the song “Young Liars” I kept on listening new things in it and it got me genuinely excited about music again. When “Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes” arrived I was already a massive TVOTR believer. That album only cimented what I already believed which was that TVOTR was the best band out of New York. Head above shoulders Interpol and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Walkmen and the National. What happened? Well, “Return To Cookie Mountain” came out and I couldn’t find a bad song in the album. They were all playing so good live during this time that i think I might’ve seen them play live about 6 times behind this album. I don’t know what it was about specifically but something within it changed me, or to be a little more specific it helped me, it healed me. I was not a teen at this time yet I felt that this album did what music is supposed to do to you sometimes, which is to transform you and transport you somewhere you haven’t been before and to make you feel something.

The wonder in this is seeing them almost 10 years later from Return To Cookie Mountain and having my daughter experience something with them with the album Seeds, and at the same time being able to meet them for a quick minute. I don’t know what kind of impact it had on her then, but i know the impact it had on me.

Thank you to TV On The Radio for creating this album. I don’t know what this album did to you as a band, but to me as a listener it’s something I still cherish up until now.

Alexis Marshall, front man for that band Daughters, has released a video for his new single “Open Mouth” from his upcoming solo album ‘House Of Lull . House Of When .” out July 23rd via Sargent House.

The video for the song has been directed by John Bradburn and a magnificent performance by Charlie Greenwood.

House Of Lull . House Of When is an album crafted around moments of spontaneity and sonic detritus. Produced by Seth Manchester in Pawtucket, Rhode Island at Machines with Magnets, Marshall brought together an impressive group of collaborators to execute his vision in Jon Syverson (Daughters), Evan Patterson (Jaye Jayle, Young Widows). With no material solidified prior to their arrival, the strategy was to embrace new sounds, employ the element of chance, and capture the creative process in a song format. The genesis of a song could be anything—a fragmented piano line, a drum pattern—but the impetus was often a non-musical sound. Marshall sourced a lot of his textural contributions from a hardware store all contributing to a proto-industrial rattle-and-rumble.

Gone To Color have released a couple of videos for their 2 singles, “The 606” and “Voyeur Nation”, off their upcoming self titled album out October 15th.

TRACKLIST:
01 “The 606” (Feat. Jessie Stein)
02 “Dissolved” (Feat. Martina Topley-Bird)
03 “Redok”
04 “Illusions” (Feat. Ade Blackburn)
05 “Just Smile” (Feat. Kurt Wagner)
06 “Suicide” (Feat. Angus Andrew)
07 “Voyeur Nation” (Feat. Carson Cox)
08 “Blur” (Feat. Jessie Stein)

The video for “the 606” was directed by Louis Dazy. The song features Jessie Stein.

The audio video for “Voyeur Nation feat. Carson Cox” is below:

The guest list for the album is really damn impressive since it features: Ade Blackburn (Clinic), Martina Topley-Bird, Pat Sansone (Wilco), Kurt Wagner (Lamb chop), Angus Angus Andrew (Liars).

Gone to Color is an experimental rock/electronic music duo originally formed in Cincinnati and currently coexisting in Atlanta and Washington D.C. Core members Tyler Bradley Walker and Matt Heim frequently use the collaborative space to explore their songwriting with other artists.

Gone to Color’s debut single and artwork features photography from Baltimore’s Patrick Joust. Joust’s stark images are supported with new wave typography by Norwegian graphic designer Simen Røyseland.

Under Attack has released a video for the song “Die Already” off their upcoming ‘Preservation’s Crash’ EP to be released this August via Three One G.

TRACKLIST:
Freedom is to Die
Preservation’s Crash
Dig Our Own Graves
Siphon
You Must Pay
Designed Death
Blood Verses
Die Already

The video was created by frequent Three One G collaborator Displaced / Replaced.

UNDER ATTACK is a band focused on “vicious precision hardcore” made up of vocalist Alex Copeland, guitarist Mark Telfian, bassist/vocalist Jason Hodges (Suppression, Oozing Meat), and drummer Dave Witte (Municipal Waste). Collectively, the band has an extensive “ex members of” list including Limp Wrist, Discordance Axis, Human Remains, Hail Mary, Eucharist, and many, many more.

“Preservation’s Crash” continues with the band’s dark and aggressive driving force of 80s punk and hardcore influence. This sonic assault is a mere extension of the lyrical message: in short, anger and frustration with life and society. The hostility of religious institutions that ferment self loathing. Coping with depression through life’s hardships.

No tour dates have been announced yet for the USofA (or Tijuana).

King Woman, who recently announced the July 30th release of their highly-anticipated sophomore album, Celestial Blues (Relapse Records), have shared a second song, “Psychic Wound”, from the upcoming release.

The video for “Psychic Wound” was directed by Muted Windows.

“‘Psychic Wound’ is about paying the price for eating forbidden fruit,” explains Kris Esfandiari of the riveting track and its visual companion. “When desire turns into obsession it can keep you longer than you intended to stay and nearly destroy your sanity.”

The video arrives as King Woman have confirmed Boy Harsher DJ and Rituals of Mine are among the openers for the outfit’s upcoming Los Angeles, Oakland and New York shows. Saint Vitus has been announced as the venue for the Oct. 15 and 16 performances in Brooklyn.

Celestial Blues was recorded in Oakland, California by GRAMMY-nominated engineer Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Amenra, Oathbreaker). The band is rounded out by drummer Joseph Raygoza and guitar player Peter Arensdorf. Visual collaborations featured in the album packaging and surrounding imagery were created by Nedda Afsari, Collin Fletcher, and Jamie Parkhurst.

Helado Negro has announced his new album “Far In” which will be released on 22nd October via 4AD.
“Far In” is Helado Negro’s first album on 4AD and the seventh full-length album in his catalog.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Wake Up Tomorrow” (Feat. Kacy Hill)
02 “Gemini And Leo”
03 “Purple Tones”
04 “There Must Be A Song Like You”
05 “Aguas Frias”
06 “Aureole”
07 “Hometown Dream”
08 “Agosto” (Feat. Buscabella)
09 “Outside The Outside”
10 “Brown Fluorescence”
11 “Wind Conversations”
12 “Thank You Forever”
13 “La Naranja”
14 “Telescope” (Feat. Benamin)
15 “Mirror Talk”

The first single released is ‘Gemini and Leo”. The video for it was directed by Jacob Escobedo.

When Roberto Carlos Lange, the musician known as Helado Negro, began writing Far In immediately following the release of This is How You Smile, he could not have predicted that we would soon need to learn how to stay at home and be the stars of our domestic dance floors with intimates and online communities.  In the new single ‘Gemini and Leo’, the titular pair stay indoors to discover each other anew with music recalling Roberto’s youth growing up in South Florida listening to 80s club songs, and their return sampled in 90s hip hop.  Visions past and future meet in a euphoria of uptempo drums, Jen Wasner’s (Flock of Dimes) bass line, and Opal Hoyt’s (Zenizen) synths and backing vocals.

Roberto and his partner, the visual artist Kristi Sword, had planned to visit Marfa, Texas for an early 2020 residency to work on their collaborative project ‘Kite Symphony.’ Once the pandemic hit, they decided to stay in Marfa through the summer, inspiring Roberto to write a significant amount of songs on the upcoming album. He wrote the new song ‘Agosto’ with his thoughts on the humid atmosphere of his hometown where flower petals and fruit fall and sweetly decay on concrete. The song features his longtime friends Buscabulla, no strangers to the melancholy pull of home in a Caribbean climate.

Throughout Roberto’s career, imagined beings, ghosts and haunted machines appear in sci-fi stories and his own conjurings. These tales make themselves at home amongst narratives that invigorate community and solidarity. His songs ‘it’s My Brown Skin’ (2016) and ‘Please Won’t Please’ (2019) assert an affirmation of Latinx identity through recurring images of brown glowing complexion, a perception that is rooted as much in a spiritual consciousness of resilience and protection, as a physical experience. On the new album Far In, Roberto says he “celebrates the ghosts,” embracing pleasure and freedom to follow the metaphysical further; the glow appears without words in new song ‘Brown Fluorescence’ – a minimal arrangement of layered, ethereal, vocal loops. He sings ‘We grow younger to stay strong,” on ‘Purple Tones’ with the playful bells of steel pan drums and reveling in the creative time-space of twilight and dusk, waking dreams, and transit, the self-dispersing nowhere and anywhere, but the touch of hair maintains an earthly connection to who you are and what you care about.

Driving back to Brooklyn in the fall inspired by his work in the desert, Roberto auspiciously purchased a Rhodes from a friend who 20 years earlier gave him his first synthesizer, an Arp Odyssey 2800. The electric piano was a catalyst that guided much of the remaining songwriting for the album. After time apart from a changed city, his base for fifteen years, ‘Hometown Dream’ and ‘Outside the Outside’,unapologetically look forward to new places and possibilities.

“Escape is never out there, you have to go inward,” Roberto reflects on developing an epic Helado Negro double album during these extraordinary times. Heavy, pulsing, rhythms drive ‘Aureole’ through a dystopian landscape, but as he sings of endless psychological restrictions, the shimmering radiance of expanded realms bursts through. This chiaroscuro effect suggests a path that isn’t tuning out beneath monumental forces and anxieties, but embracing the dark of the unknown with openness, pleasure, and growth.

No tour dates have been announced yet for the USofA (or Tijuana).

The Bronx have released the first video, ‘Curb Feelers’, in support of their upcoming album, Bronx VI, out August 27 via Cooking Vinyl.

The motorcycle garage video was directed by Estevan Oriol.

“Every Bronx record has a backbone track, a sonic anchor that sets the tone for the entire album,” explains vocalist Matt Caughthran, “’Curb Feelers’ is the rock that the rest of the record breaks itself against.”

Each of the 11 songs on Bronx VI is being issued as a separate, limited-edition 7-inch, with the band partnering with an impressive group of artists for the series, with the available 7-inches featuring graphics from DabsMyla, Brian Montoiri and Jeremy Dean. The newly released “Curb Feelers” 7-inch features Estevan Oriol’s photography and can be purchased via the band’s webstore. The Bronx partnered with San Diego-based Fall Brewing Company, creating the limited-edition “Watering The Well” lager. Bronx VI was produced by Joe Barresi (Tool, Melvins, Bad Religion) at his House of Compression studio in Pasadena, Calif.

The Bronx will be on a full tour this fall they’re scheduled to play on October 10th in San Diego, CA at Gallagher Square at Petco Park. They’re also set to play Riot Fest on September 18th in Chicago and Punk Rock Bowling on Sept 25th in Las Vegas.

The Color Forty Nine have shared their 2nd single,”Another World”, off what will be their second album “String Ladders” out July 23rd.

The video for the song was directed by Lianne Muller.

“Another World” continues the display of the beautiful musicianship from the whole band. From Scott’s percussion work to Jason’s subtle bass work to what is Matt’s answer to being the glue that holds the band together and the link to Phil’s vocals.

The Colors Forty Nine have also announced their record release show at the Casbah set for Friday July 23rd. That evening they will be joined by Paolo Zappoli (the black heart procession) in the Razzmatazz room. Also on the bill Carrie Feller (Hexa) & Rosa Rossa. That evening will also be the premiere of a video by Hugo Crosthwaite.

No other live dates have been announced yet but hopefully more dates will follow.

Satanic Planet have premiered the video for the latest single, “Devil In Me (feat. Nomi Abadi)”, off their self titled album out now on Three One G.

The video stars Autumn Best (CW’s upcoming The 4400 reboot) and Jeremy Radin (The Way Back), was lensed by Devin Schiro, and was written, directed and edited by Lola Blanc.

Blanc explained how she got involved: “I watched the documentary Hail, Satan? on Hulu and was immediately intrigued by The Satanic Temple, their co-founder Lucien Greaves, and the work they do, so I asked Lucien to come on my podcast. While we were interviewing him, I found out his band Satanic Planet (comprised of Greaves, Luke Henshaw, The Locust’s Justin Pearson and Slayer’s Dave Lombardo) had an album coming out, I *ever so casually* dropped my strong interest in doing a video for them, and here we are!” Blanc felt drawn to this track in particular. “I specifically requested the song ‘Devil in Me’ because it immediately evoked the feeling of an exorcism. The horrors that can happen when religion is taken to the extreme was a theme we were clearly very aligned on, so it just felt like a perfect fit.”

Satanic Planet teamed up with Lola Blanc and Liz Maupin to create a short film based on the band’s song, “Devil In Me” , which will be part of L.A. Shorts International Film Festival, an Oscar-qualifying film festival in Los Angeles, CA. The festival is running online through the month of July, with more details to come.

As we’ve previously stated, this band, album have checked almost every box to make sure the pearl clutchers hold tight to their jewels, from the band name to the band members to the song titles and lyrics and themes and artwork and hidden satanic messages. The only thing that looks to be missing is children. Children laughing. Children singing. As we said before regarding this Satanic Planet release or any other: We believe it will be interesting if we have evolved into a place where we could sit down and enjoy this (or any) album in a family setting (your children included, no one excluded) without being held back by some sort of religious guilt. We wholeheartedly believe that there are still people, families that are bound by this cloud of religious fear that will look and use this band as a scapegoat. Hopefully their children will find the album or maybe the music will find them.