The Mountain Goats are on the bobble, Andy Shauf lights one up, Bandcalledmax crank it, Lunchbox get curious, Millennium Parade get animated and more in your Thursday Roundup. Don’t miss the new Sloan single down there — it’s got the second-best title of the day. The best? Well, that would belong to the Beaten to Death track. See for yourself.
ON REPEAT
1 | The Mountain Goats | Get Famous
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “David Hollander and I met last year and I saw a fellow traveller in him — a guy who likes to get an idea and wrestle with it until something weird and cool happens,” says Mountain Goats leader John Darnielle. “I played him the demo of Get Famous last July and he picked it up immediately — this would have been within a week or so of writing it, which is kind of a special time in a song’s life — and I knew I’d want him on board to express some of the dread that lurks underneath its mid-tempo Mott the Hoople-inspired jaunt. I wasn’t sure if bobbleheads could really capture that level of giddy anxiety, but David’s visions play for keeps — the first time I saw the camera resolve on my bobblehead in a way that made it look like it had changed its expression, I almost fell out of my chair. Proud to have a video this left-field for our dark little song. ”
2 | Andy Shauf | Clove Cigarette
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Andy Shauf’s The Neon Skyline, released earlier this year, is one of 2020’s most highly praised records. Today, Shauf presents a stunning video for the album’s Clove Cigarette, which explores the better times, honing in on hazy memories. The video, directed by Colin Medley and Jared Raab, was made using a variety of cutting-edge technologies: LiDAR, a 3D scanning technique using laser light that’s often used for maps and self-driving cars, photogrammetry, and a video game engine. It features static tableaus of Shauf in various settings, playing his guitar in the yard and the Skyline bar. These scans were then relit and rendered out using an animated virtual camera. Says Medley: “The song is about half-forgotten moments, so Jared and I wanted to make something dreamlike and imperfect.”
3 | Bandcalledmax | Turn It Up
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “What can be done with rock ’n’ roll now? That’s a question Toronto’s Bandcalledmax asks with Turn It Up. In an age where every fuzzy riff has been heard before and every horny lyric of unrequited love has been uttered, Dave Monks (vocals, guitar), Nick McKinlay (drums) and Mike Small (bass), decided it was time to find some new rules to break. Turn It Up — the title-track first single from their Oct. 23 album — rides the lightning between the workaday warp of veterans cutting loose and the mindless joy of a 15 year old stepping on a distortion pedal for the first time.”
4 | Lunchbox | I Really Wanna Know
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Lunchbox premiere their new video for I Really Wanna Know from their upcoming album After School Special, out Oct. 30. Lunchbox’s Tim Brown and Donna McKean have been making records in their Oakland basement for two decades, inspired by 1960s/’70s AM-radio pop and TV show theme music, punk, C86, and mod à la The Creation and The Jam. Their new album finds them at the height of their powers of songcraft and performance.”
5 | Millennium Parade | Philip
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Japanese music group Millennium Parade are a collective of creative individuals including musicians, film directors, visual effects artists, designers, and illustrators organized by producer / songwriter Daiki Tsuneta. With an electronic-punk leaning musical sound, Millennium Parade’s concept is inspired by Hyakki Yakō (The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons), derived from centuries-old Japanese folklore and tales of mysterious supernatural creatures. The night parade saw ghosts and monsters roam the streets causing utter pandemonium throughout Japan. This chaos and mystery underlies the group’s collective vision to present Tokyo’s new values to the rest of the world.”
6 | Dirty Projectors | Earth Crisis
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Dirty Projectors released Earth Crisis, the penultimate instalment in the cycle of five EPs the band has been releasing throughout 2020. The Earth Crisis EP arrives with a stunning short film of the same name written and directed by friend and longtime collaborator Isaiah Saxon of Encyclopedia Pictura, a Los Angeles-based film and animation studio whose passions include gardening, villages, friendship, science visualization, social ecology, adventure, and country living. The Earth Crisis short film features a special medley mix of the EP’s songs, and tells the prescient and poignant tale of an elderly woman alone in the arctic wilderness.”
ALSO ON THE PLAYLIST
7 | Kulick | Talking To The Ceiling
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “PA alt-rock singer/songwriter Kulick gives fans another preview of his upcoming debut full-length album Yelling in a Quiet Neighborhood, out Oct. 16. Check out the lyric video for the new song Talking To The Ceiling. Kulick shares: “I was born half deaf in both ears. This was the inspiration behind using subtitles/closed captions for the lyrics. I wear hearing aids which help, but it’s made life different for sure, and in some moments has made me feel a bit more alone or to myself. It also made being an artist, musician, engineer, and producer a challenge. But I’m up for it, and I continue to grow, adapt, and create.”
8 | Small Bills | ET Diamond (ft. Koncept Jack$on)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Small Bills released their first video for the song ET Diamond (feat. Koncept Jack$on). The track is hard jargon and next level style from the Detroit producer The Lasso and N.Y.C.’s Elucid. The video was shot in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The track is another brilliant example of The Lasso’s ability to create soundscapes without limit or range. The production is a glossy industrial night ride that gives Elucid and Koncept Jack$on room to roam the dark. Says The Lasso: “On an early covid morning I was playing this electric kalimba thru slicer pedal.. got the loop going, added some synths, bass, percussion… emailed it over to my friend Jaws That Bite and about 20 minutes later it was back with the drums at the end. I knew it was for Small Bills, so I sent to Elucid and got the triple fire emoji back fast. He arrived in Detroit for the sessions with the Koncept Jack$on feature to complete.”
9 | Pierre Kwenders & Clément Bazin | Ego
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Following the warm single Sentiment, Pierre Kwenders and Clément Bazin are back with Ego, a second track off their EP Classe Tendresse, to be released on Oct. 23. The song evokes an uninhibited club atmosphere, and praises humility while still embracing the double entendre. Kwenders’ voice slips between the frantic rhythms produced by Bazin, lifting us into the trance of dance. Says Bazin: “It’s the first track we made together. It began with this melodic pattern to open the track, on which I layed the rhythm, then everything naturally found its place within the song. I wanted a club track, uptempo, hitting strong with fat subs!”
10 | The Last Dinosaur | Unititled Track For Piano & Viola
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Following the recent announcement of his new album Wholeness, out Oct. 23, The Last Dinosaur (the brainchild of songwriter Jamie Cameron) returns today with new single Untitled Piece For Piano & Viola. Jamie says, “Initially a lament of the loss of, and then a joyous celebration of, whatever that higher-power is that’s responsible for inspiration and the purity of expression that occurs when you lose yourself in creating without fear, insecurity, judgement, cynicism.”
11 | Andrée Burelli | Cum Sidera
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Andrée Burelli’s serene new music video and single Cum Sidera is in direct conversation with the one she released last month, Cuore Di Piume. Here’s what she says: The shots in the videos for “Cuore Di Piume and Cum Sidera are of landscapes in Sardinia, one of the few places in Italy where nature predominates architectural structures. After 10 years in a big city like Berlin, I felt the need to connect with nature so I spent a few months in Sardinia composing and filming my surroundings.”
12 | Pothamus | Orath
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Belgian sludge/post-metal newcomers Pothamus will release their debut album Raya on Dec. 4. Raya is the result of three years of intense writing that culminated in a 50-minute journey through bleak and desolated landscapes, ethereal ambiances and massively gigantic and monolithic walls of sound. Pothamus have also unveiled a music video for opening track Orath.”
13 | Mxmtoon | Wallflower
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Mxmtoon (Maia) has released her Dusk EP, the companion piece to her Dawn EP earlier this year. On Dusk we see Maia continue in her evolution as a songwriter and producer embarking on a newer, more sophisticated sound, while still exploring issues of loneliness, isolation, but also self-empowerment. Maia is also sharing her new single Wallflower. She says: “At the beginning of my journey with music, I actually approached releasing my songs on the internet because I thought no one would listen to me. There was comfort in the anonymity, in thinking that I could shout into a void of people with no one to shout back at me. I got rather lucky though, and people found the art I was making. I wouldn’t change a thing in how my life has happened, but there are days where I crave backing into a wall and fading away as I watch the world go by. I think introverts can relate to this feeling of wanting to disappear and finding comfort in the shadows of the world. Wallflower is for those who get overwhelmed on occasion by the realities of our world, and sometimes need to take a step back and breathe before they brave the storm again.”
14 | Luka Kuplowsky | Stardust (Reprise)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Luka Kuplowsky’s Stardust is out Friday, and ahead of its release, Kuplowsky is sharing the eponymous song along with the arresting visual accompaniment for Stardust (Reprise). “I wrote Stardust at the end of 2016 reflecting on the passing of Leonard Cohen, David Bowie and Prince. The song muses on death and legacy, imagining the artist’s afterlife as cosmic stardust brushed off an angel’s shoulder. The song is a key to the record; a musical reference; a space of consolation; a lifting off. It is the record’s guiding light. After attending an exhibition of the artist Evan Penny and his sculpture of the hanging Marsyas, I imagined a video that extended the song’s thoughts on art and legacy through the Greek myth of Apollo and Marsyas.”
15 | Suss | Echo Lake
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “While their first two albums Ghost Box and High Line explored panoramas that evoked the American West as well as the cosmic beyond, Promise takes a more personal journey that maps out the rocky terrain of the American dream. Writing, recording, and mixing during the pandemic quarantine, the members of Suss used their music to come to grips with concepts such as “promise” and “hope” and what they could still mean in this day and age. On Promise, the N.Y.C. quartet creates sonic landscapes using pedal steel, baritone guitar, ebow, harmonium, synths, loops and other Americana instrumentation. Drawing on influences from their younger years, SUSS has created music that evokes early psychedelic Pink Floyd, Kraftwerk and John Barry. The result, which they call “pastoral psychedelicism,” is a music that is beautiful, haunting and challenging.”
16 | Dark Tropics | Moroccan Sun
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Emerging from the steamy shadows of their debut single Badlands, pop-noir duo Dark Tropics are back with their brand-new single/video Moroccan Sun. Starring the same cinematic flare that helped solidify the duo’s previous single, Moroccan Sun introduces a vibrant pop sound that twists and twirls in the sweltering Mediterranean heat. Dancing away forgotten memories of a passionate romance, retro fantasia splash over bright, soulful melodies. Heartache has never felt so oddly enticing. “Moroccan Sun was written as a narrative for my first travelling experience fully on my own” says frontwoman Rio. “It’s letting go of what you believed to be your comfort, your light in life. Understanding that you will always have some constants, but things will change and mould around you, and embracing this brings a new sense of happiness. Taking the step to leave the old behind, move forward into the new and embracing a new chapter.”
17 | Andy Mineo | Jackson Pollock
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Atlanta-based artist Andy Mineo released his second single and video, Jackson Pollock, from his upcoming EP Happy Thoughts, out Nov. 11. Jackson Pollock was conceived of and recorded in Mineo’s makeshift home set-up, after quarantine prevented him from returning to the studio. “I was trying my hand at some drum sounds and distortion, and it made me feel like I was splattering paint like Jackson Pollock did,” says Mineo. “I started writing some raps, and it ended up feeling like an art piece.”
18 | 4thSex | Line 851 (Express)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “4thSex is the brainchild of French-born L.A.-based music producer, composer, DJ, creative director & designer Jean Marc Virard. For a decade, the multifaceted artist has been working intensively in and around the Los Angeles underground scene. This song originally came about from a conversation between about what it was like to go to parties as teenagers. How back then every aspect was dangerous, especially for a kid. The House and Techno scenes in Chicago and France were at their peak in the late ’80s / early ’90s and to be there was something special. Like the song, this video is a tribute to that era.”
19 | Empress | Golden Orb
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Australian post-metal group Empress have revealed a music video for a new track off the band’s second album Wait ‘til Night, set for release on Nov. 20. Titled Golden Orb, this new video was directed by Sam Haven. Wait ‘til Night sees Empress once again blurring the lines of such diverse musical genres as shoegaze, post-rock and metal to craft a singular and emotional sound that defies easy categorization. More refined and mature than before, Empress are a clash of emotional and musical contradictions, soft and harsh, calm and hysterical.”
20 | Kaky | C’est pas la Peine
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Exciting French bedroom producer Kaky drops his second single and video as he continues to unveil a universe rich in surreal and innovative production techniques through his series KakySounds. The claustrophobic music video features a powerful starring acting performance from Kaky as he delves somewhere between mental asylum and a poetic dystopia. With supermodel looks and the lyrical wit of Eminem and flow of emotional trap stars like Post Malone, Kaky is bringing Chanson Française to the fore crossing international language boundaries like never before.”
21 | Sound Of Memories | The Mirror Behind
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “About five years after the official release of their debut full-length To Deliverance (2015), French melodic death-metallers Sound Of Memories are about to give birth to a new album called The Sand Within this fall. In the meantime, they shared a first audio glance from their forthcoming effort with the song The Mirror Behind. Sound of Memories are a band from the Parisian suburbs created in 2010. Their style can be described as a mix of heavy/thrash metal riffs with a base of old-school melodic death music.”
22 | Draag | Discipline
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “L.A. indie-shoegaze quintet Draag shared their heady cover of Discipline by industrial pioneers Throbbing Gristle ahead of the band’s Covers EP out Oct. 9. The track follows previous covers of Deerhunter’s Nothing Ever Happened, Vinyl Williams’ Lansing, Pinback’s Loro and Milton Nascimento & Lô Borges’ Clube Da Esquina N°2. When the band’s plans for a summer tour were cancelled due to COVID, the group “decided we’d use the time we’d spend on the road to make this EP instead, sending stems back and forth to each other. The choice of songs to cover was very stream of consciousness — instinctually chosen from a combination of Twitter recommendations and artists that expand the definition of music to us.”
23 | Fat Tony | Je Ne Sais Quoi
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Je Ne Sais Quoi is a dense poem that professes redemption and reveals the beauties of life from the mundane to the extraordinary. Featuring a beat built around an accordion, Je Ne Sais Quoi is heavily influenced by ’60s French pop artists such as Gainsbourg and Hardy, and the philosophies of Descartes and Bogle (via fashion over style).”
24 | Convulse | Deathstar
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Finnish progressive death-metal vets Convulse unveil their new lyric video for the track Deathsta, from the record of the same name, set for release Oct. 30. Notes guitarist/vocalist Rami Jämsä: “I wrote about my frustration towards the growth of human greed, extinction, and hatred. It feels like we are living in a doomed planet called Deathstar and I am worried about humanity and our future. This song was composed coequally with the band. The main riff came when we jammed together freely, a very common way for us to compose songs. I come very often to the rehearsal studio with only one riff or song idea and then we jam it together and see where it leads to. Sometimes good ideas lead to finished songs, but we also have a lot of unfinished ideas. The main riff on Deathstar reminds me a little bit of Sepultura.”
25 | Ett Dödens Maskineri | Låsta Dörrar
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Hailing from Sweden, Ett Dödens Maskineri are a band looking to change what they can by taking those responsible to task. Drawing influence from the crust/death metal of cult Swedish acts Skitsystem, Disfear and Totalitär, along with the discordant anarchy of punk rock bands such as Asta Kask and Strebers, the band are set to release their debut album Nov. 30. Det Svenska Hatet (The Swedish Hatred) is the quartet’s sonic offering for the creation of a more empathetic and inclusive society. Seeking to destroy Sweden’s ultra-right and stem the flow of racist rhetoric, they know they’ve got their work cut out. Yet in that looming shadow of an Orwellian future, as new single Låsta Dörrar demonstrates, if anger truly is an energy then Ett Dödens Maskineri’s music is an aural dystopia imbued with over 30 years of rage, sorrow and rectification.”
26 | Cousin Betty | Drone
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Cousin Betty is the brainchild of Damien Stofka a guitarist/songwriter who has created riffs and written songs for Molten Universe, Death Mattel, Litter and various other projects for the last 15 years. Drone is the debut single from the upcoming EP Left, a meaty slab of distorted, psychedelic, indie desert rock. Says singer Matt Downey: “Damien played me a riff he’d been working on; it was immediately infectious, but I wasn’t in the mood. I was upset about some Facebook “friend” just regurgitating some stuff — obvious garbage they’d heard on in the media and seemingly verbatim … The lyrics spilled out and the entire song, complete with multiple takes and backing vocals was finished in about 40 minutes. On re-listens I think I was pretty harsh but it’s just what I was feeling at the time.”
27 | Jim White | Smart Ass Reply
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Smart Ass Reply, the second single from Jim White’s forthcoming LP Misfit’s Jubilee (Oct. 30) premieres today. He says: “Circa 1973 I was what they called a Jesus Freak. I prayed a lot and went to church three times a week and abstained from dope and sex and sin and what have you. I drove this crappy old Ford sedan that I bought from a cop. It came with an 8 track tape player and a few weeks after I got it, tucked under the bench seat I found an Alice Cooper tape. Now, according to my pastor and the elders in my church, Alice Cooper was the human embodiment of Satan, and despite the fact that such music was forbidden by my church, I secretly listened to that tape over and over, typically cranked up so loud that it made my ears ring. That devil music felt liberating and empowering and was my covert rebellion against piety and the immense gravitational pull of all things Southern and religious. I guess that seminal experience must have imprinted down deep in my psyche because 40 years later this song came popping out of nowhere. So I blame Jesus and Alice Cooper for its appearance on my latest record.”
28 | Joey Molland | All I Want to Do
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Renowned Badfinger guitarist, singer, and songwriter Joey Molland is returning with his first album of new material in nearly a decade. The full length, titled Be True To Yourself, will be released on Oct. 16. Molland co-wrote the album with Mark Hudson, who produced last year’s Losst And Founnd by Harry Nilsson. All I Want To Do is the latest preview. If you listen closely, this song you might hear two iconic notes from Badfinger’s No Matter What You Are.”
29 | Gold Record | Glow The Day
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Gold Record is comprised of lifelong friends Evan Michalski, Noah Clark & Ryan McKone. The band formed in quarantine 2020 while spread out between the Bay Area, California and the High Desert, New Mexico. Gold Record came into being to keep a strong creative focus during lockdown and celebrate their love of collaboration and adventurous pop music. Today the band is pleased to present the first single Glow Up The Day, from their EP Volume Five out Oct. 23. Says Michalski: “We wanted to write a song that captured the spirit of what we were trying to achieve with this project: how do we make things better and more positive for ourselves right now — even in this weird-ass time?”
30 | theLINE | Harmony Do You Mis We
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “theLINE recently announced a new EP entitled Sour To Punker, to be released on Oct. 23. In a hail Mary, the band decided to drop one more track that they wrote during the Covid-19 quarantine: The new single Harmony Do You Miss We. “It’s rooted in the spirit of ‘unity’ and the philosophy that ‘we’ is more powerful than ‘me,’ ” they say. “It’s retrospective, but also a dedication to our future perspectives.”
31 | Devin B. Thompson | Love To See You Smile
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Soul music is a deep well, and the mercury-voiced Devin B. Thompson plumbs the form to its depths in Tales of the Soul, which arrives Oct. 30. Co-produced by Thompson, Severn Records founder David Earl, and pianist-musical director Kevin Anker, the 11-track release was recorded at the label’s Annapolis studio. The collection features the company’s ace house band — Anker, guitarist Johnny Moeller, organist Benjie Porecki, bassist Steve Gomes and drummer Robb Stupka. The group’s earthy yet silken sound is augmented by a four-piece horn section, a hip-pocket chorus of background vocalists, and storied guitarist Robben Ford, who guests on two tracks.”
32 | Sloan | Silence Trumps Lies
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Chris Murphy says: “I wanted to write a song about the importance of listening — whether to experts or the disenfranchised. It’s a song about people who won’t listen and won’t shut up, who are vain and can’t handle criticism, who talk about things for which they aren’t qualified and make promises they can’t keep. As we are facing such profound global challenges including drastic climate change and racial injustice, it is imperative to remember that sometimes it is important to leave space for those with lived experience and studied expertise to take the floor.”
33 | Serpents of Secrecy | Warbird’s Song
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Baltimore doom outfit Serpents of Secrecy — formed by members of Sixty Watt Shaman, King Giant, Foghound, Borracho and more — present their long-awaited debut album Ave Vindicta on Oct. 31, in homage to the late bassist Rev. Jim Forrester (also of Sixty Watt Shaman, Foghound) who was murdered on the streets of Baltimore in 2017. Says guitarist Todd Ingram: “I hadn’t listened to the album in many, many months. I’d start to and then I just hit the stop button with my eyes welled up. I drove to the studio feeling bad. I felt I’d let my brother down by not spending hours preparing like I would do normally. But that feeling soon disappeared as everything from vocals and guitar parts were getting nailed in just one take.”
34 | Starveya | Let You In
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Los Angeles psychedelic indie-rock outfit Starveya return with heady ambient vibrations laced with post-summer melancholy on new single Let You In. The new release is described by the band as “sort of an anti-love song. It is loosely about love and relationships. Not so much about a love lost as it is about a love that never was. Or never was what you thought it to be or dreamt it to be.” Starveya are currently in the studio working on their upcoming full-length album Abandon All Muses, slated for a 2021 release.”
35 | Beaten To Death | Flatulence Of Emotions
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In a surprise move, Norwegian grindcore innovators Beaten to Death completely caught us off-guard last week by releasing their fifth album with no prior notice. Titled Laat Maar, Ik Verhuis Naar Het Bos, this new album is now available. “This time we decided to make a vinyl release that would never be available in any other format.”
36 | Smokescreens | Working Title
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Working Title is a song about being at your wit’s end and wanting time to stop so you can catch your breath. For me it was a long time job I had that ground me down slowly over the years. I was there until I finally reached a breaking point. The song was written after that breaking point,” says Chris Rosi of Smokescreens. The L.A. outfit are a group of friends who bonded through a love for New Zealand’s Flying Nun label, as well as shared inspirations such as The Velvet Underground, The Go-Betweens, The Television Personalities and indie-pop of all flavors. Their self-titled debut was released to wide acclaim in 2017, and was quickly followed-up with the excellent Used To Yesterday in 2018.”
37 | Dialogia | Conundrum
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Maryland dark progressive death metal trio Dialogia unveil their latest single Conundrum, from their ambitious debut full-length Nostrum. Notes vocalist/guitarist/bassist Alejandro Nogales: “Conundrum is without a doubt my proudest accomplishment on the album. It’s very diverse in terms of light and dark and the lyrics deal with a labyrinth in the both physical and metaphorical sense — that concept translated to real life! There are so many different vibes and elements in the song, what with all the choral performances, the fretless bass, layers of acoustic guitars and sound effects and synthesizers, and the riffs themselves: figuring out how to place everything for maximum sonic and emotional impact was a hell of a maze to navigate. Integrating all those colors and elements while still maintaining the dark death metal aura of Nostrum as a whole was the biggest conundrum of them all.”
38 | Iska Dhaaf | Up
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Here’s the title track to Iska Dhaaf’s upcoming EP Up. The single is out today and the EP comes out Nov. 2. A dreamy doo-wop inspired piece of bedroom pop, Up is a catchy and uplifting song about surviving a hard year and redeeming a cherished relationship. Nathan Quiroga’s charming lyricism and wit combine to give listeners a dose of joy and optimism. Replete with airy synths and a swinging beat, the instrumentation fits the concept like a glove. Iska Dhaaf are a producer/songwriter duo living in Brooklyn. Their recent work navigates indietronica and bedroom pop with a blend of rich lyricism and lush textural soundscapes.”
