News

When it comes to solid-gold indie rock hits circa 2022, we're approaching critical Mess! As Mess Esque continue on their tour of the UK and Europe, with a solo show at Cafe Oto in London tonight, they now reveal ANOTHER new single! Scraped delicately from the embers of internal passions and rendered as music in their separate studios. Mess Esque clearly desire to share some space in our souls: “Liminal Space”!

As already established by the last month's "Amour your Amor" single, the... (read more)

With 2020 hindsight (and magic mics), we spy with our AV eye, Wand, in their late Plum/Laughing Matter quintet style, rolling up the west coast and rolling out the magic carpet rides on the upcoming live double album, Spiders In The Rain. These early 2020 nights spent communing with the crowds and jamming toward infinity with promise that we’ll meet again, on other nights like this further on down the Möbius strip. But you KNEW this!

Spiders In The Rain is ... (read more)

Oren Ambarchi's Shebang is without a doubt the best party you'll get invited to this year! Shebang's not simply a good time, not just a beautifully crafted album, but a masterwork in composition and collaboration. Oren drew together an international all-star cast of musical luminaries whose contributions were recorded individually in locations from Sweden to Japan. They're threaded together so convincingly (by Ambarchi in collaboration with Konrad Sprenger) that it’s hard to believe the musicians weren’t all breathing the same studio air. Shebang follows multiple paths through space,... (read more)

The NOW phase of No Age is upon us, and the future is BRIGHT HERE! With People Helping People, their evolution is crisp and crystalline, with production mods rooted in punk modes, frantic filter passes and deceptively low-fi sounds and guitars piling up corrosively to screaming blissful climax. People Helping People finds their disparate desires operating in perfect sync; prolegomenic weirdness fused immaculately to classic rock propulsion, transforming the energy pouring out from their hands and feet with electronics.

When “Compact Flashes” bounces in on... (read more)

Yes, Mess Esque is spreading all over the place, beyond the magical shores of their native land. And to wit, they've got more news!

Returned to their separate spaces between tours of the US and the just-announced - and just-starting, holy gasp! - European tour (commencing in the sovereign territory of the UK - god bless 'em), Mick Turner and Helen Franzmann's remote-link got all burnt up as they plotted a couple of fresh courses to the center of our soul - yup,... (read more)

At long last, Meg Baird will be out on the road again—this time with a full backing band of captivating co-conspirators!

Since co-founding Philadelphia's luminary psychedelic folk collective Espers, Meg Baird has steadily created a body of solo and collaborative work within folk, acoustic, electrified and underground music traditions. She has recorded with harpist Mary Lattimore, helped form Heron Oblivion as a drummer and vocalist, and has continued to create her own solo work featuring her beguiling guitar and songwriting. An... (read more)

With a tactile clunk, Bitchin Bajas (Cooper Crain, Rob Frye and Dan Quinlivan) bubble to the surface. Bajascillators, arriving almost five years since their last official full-length, 2017’s Bajas Fresh, is a riveting new full-length springing forth from the implacable, eternal gene pool that's also included soundtracks, re-imagined cuts from Sun Ra's catalog, and collaborations with Natural Information Society and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy among their illustrious recorded output. Following the flow, as always, the Bajas go ever-deeper-and-higher on Bajascillators!

Bajascillators reflects the experiences — the... (read more)

Oren Ambarchi's forthcoming LP Shebang is a puzzle built from isolated single notes, rising into clusters of densely layered poly-rhythms before being met with a world of esteemed sonic collaborators. The first single, "I", charted the assembling shapes: Oren's staccato tones, with subtle Leslie shimmers and guitar synth, joined in the flow by Joe Talia’s ride cymbal articulations. 

The new single, "II", picks up where "I" left off (it happens sometimes!), as the elements blossom into a rigorously snapped-to fusion funk,... (read more)

On his forthcoming album, YTI⅃AƎЯ, Bill Callahan is accompanied by frequent collaborator Matt Kinsey on guitar, Emmett Kelly on bass/backing vocals, Sarah Ann Phillips on piano/backing vocals, and Jim White on drums. Now, that's a reality we can all get excited about! His first album since 2020's Gold Record, Bill reflects on his process and motivation for YTI⅃AƎЯ thusly:

"I wanted to make a record that addressed or reflected the current climate. It felt like it was necessary to rouse people — rouse... (read more)

With the dog days of summer nearly behind us, Bonnie “Prince” Billy  presents a revitalized "Outsider" anthem; a cover version from one of the giants of the punk era. With a Ramones song built for a ‘Prince’ (from the pen of immortal Dee Dee), Bonny reframes the lyric’s psycho-stoicism with stately melody. Produced in 2016 with Mark Nevers, the song features Chris Scruggs (of the Fabulous Superlatives) and homeboys William Tyler, Peter Townsend and D.C. Berman, who pours existential dread from... (read more)