Ministry are tired, Piroshka are all yours, Beliefs play with demons, Fine Points go Underground and more in today’s Roundup. Badges? We ain’t got no badges! We don’t need no badges! I don’t have to show you any stinking badges!
1 | It wouldn’t be an election day without Al Jourgenesen pitching crap from the peanut gallery. For the U.S. midterms, the Ministry majordomo weighs in with a seizure-inducing new video for the AmeriKKKant track We’re Tired of It — which pretty much sums up the whole process, doncha think? SEZ THE PRESS RELEASE: “The psychedelic, politically influenced and very much in-your-face AmeriKKKant’s nine tracks are rooted in Jourgensen’s unadulterated anger for what’s happening in America today: the waning respect for the U.S. Constitution, the growing acceptance of one’s opinions replacing facts, the decline of our leaders’ sense of morals, ethics and personal responsibility to the country and to their constituents, and the mad man in the White House.” Ding a ding a dang a dong dong ding dong above.
2 | Shoegaze supergroup alert! Meet Piroshka, a new band featuring former members of Lush, Elastica, Moose and Modern English. If that turns your crank, then you’ll love their sweetly crunching single Everlastingly Yours, from their forthcoming debut disc Brickbat. SEZ THE PRESS RELEASE: “The album is named after the word for a missile, which nails the record’s heavyweight lyrics, if not the music’s gorgeous, bittersweet and euphoric pop. Think of Brickbat as a wolf in sheep’s clothing – which suits the name Piroshka, the Hungarian take on the wolf-terrorised fairytale hero Little Red Riding Hood.” My, what big ideas you have:
3 | We all have to deal with personal demons. Most of us aren’t as well-equipped to do so as Jesse Crowe of Toronto duo Beliefs: She gets to wrestle them into beautiful pieces of music. And under the name Praises, she’s about to reveal the darkly haunted results of her latest battles. First up: The single Love Unkind, from her Dec. 7 solo debut In This Year: Ten of Swords. SEZ THE PRESS RELEASE: “The project was created as a quiet conversation on the love, loss, and lessons that can’t quite fit within the public forum of a collaborative band. With songs coded in life’s stories, she invites friends and lovers to find lines encrypted in the lyrics that point directly at them. Deeply personal, yet highly fictionalized.” Sing her Praises:
4 | If you believe press releases — and I always do, because we all know that publicists never, ever, ever, EVER stretch the truth — The Velvet Underground recorded the song Candy Says exactly 50 years ago. So what better day for San Francisco band Fine Points to release an appropriately woozy, narcoleptic cover of Lou Reed‘s ode to an Andy Warhol superstar who came from out on the Island. SEZ THE PRESS RELEASE: “Candy Says is a devastatingly beautiful ballad about looking in the mirror and wishing that you were someone else. It’s a feeling that most of us have experienced at some point. I have always loved the Velvet Underground; not because they were amazing songwriters and musicians (they were)…but because they were so good at being themselves — something that can’t be faked.” Watch the bluebirds fly:
5 | How many people can say they wrote an award-winning song? Toronto indie-pop duo Moscow Apartment can. The demo for their brightly colourful cut Orange nabbed an award in the under 18 category at the Canadian Songwriting Competition. Now you can hear the finished version. So everyone’s a winner, really. SEZ THE PRESS RELEASE: “Orange is about the weird twilight-zone feeling that happens sometimes at sunset – when things suddenly don’t feel real, like everything around you is a movie.” Roll sound:
