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PicaPica Announce new track “Cast in Stone” 12” & video
Rough Trade Records are pleased to share the new song & video from PicaPica.
The band will also be releasing a limited edition 12” on Feb 15th which includes two remixes from Seb Rochford – best known for drumming with the legendary Patti Smith – who also performed on PicaPica’s debut album.
Cast in Stone is a song of two halves, it playfully marks the emotionally turbulent waxing and waning of love, of both its bonds and disaffection.
PicaPica is made up of Josienne Clarke (vocals), Samantha Whates(vocals), Adam Beattie (guitar / keyboards), and Sonny Johns (bass).
“Cast in Stone” was also produced by Sonny Johns, Grammy, Mercury and Mobo-nominated producer and engineer.
SOAK unveils new track, ‘Valentine Shmalentine’
SOAK has today unveiled a beautiful new track Valentine Shmalentine
Together with new single Knock Me Off My Feet and returning track Everybody Loves You, ‘Valentine’ is taken from Bridie’s much-anticipated second album, Grim Town, which will be released on Rough Trade Records on April 26th.
‘Grim Town’ follows the success of SOAK’s multi-prize-winning debut album ‘Before We Forgot How To Dream’, and an extraordinary period of invention and self-discovery for the still-just-22-year-old Derry native.
Haunting, atmospheric and brutally honest, ‘Valentine Shmalentine’ – says Bridie – is “the result of both giving into hallmark and being a dramatic bitch.” It’s a stark highlight from SOAK’s second album ‘Grim Town’, a record that takes those most despondent moments (such as a disastrous Valentine’s Day) and ultimately finds hope and humour in them.
Black Midi sigh to Rough Trade - Share 'Speedway' EP
Enigmatic London four-piece Black Midi have today announced their signing to iconic indie label Rough Trade and shared their new EP Speedway.
The Speedway EP was produced by Dan Carey and is accompanied by visuals from bassist Cameron Picton. The release is otherwise only available as a limited physical 12” at the band’s shows and features remixes from Proc Fiskal, Kwake Bass and Blanck Mass.
Having formed just over a year ago, Black Midi have quickly cemented their reputation as the hottest new underground band in the UK, following a string of sold-out live dates – including Electrowerkz and Bloc in London – and surprise shows punctuated by constantly shifting set-lists and blistering musicianship.
Until the release of their debut single ‘bmbmbm’ on Carey’s label, Speedy Wunderground, the band only existed in live form, making their name initially at Brixton’s Windmill venue and recording a frenetic session for Queen Kong’s NTS Radio show.
Most recently Black Midi recorded a live session with KEXP at Iceland Airwaves, uploaded by the legendary U.S. public radio station this week.
Taut, inventive and sitting at the apex of electronic and hardcore, the aforementioned ‘bmbmbm’ sold out its 300 copies instantly and had to be taken to repress within the first week. While Black Midi’s minimal online and press presence, coupled with their uncompromising youth, has caused the music world to gravitate towards them and their indefinable sound; impossible to put your finger on, but equally impossible to ignore.
Black Midi are Geordie Greep (vocals/guitar), Cameron Picton (bass/vocals), Matt Kelvin (guitar) and Morgan Simpson (drums).
LUCY DACUS ANNOUNCES HOLIDAY-THEMED SONG SERIES TITLED 2019 BILINGUAL ‘LA VIE EN ROSE’ COVER OUT NOW IN HONOUR OF VALENTINE’S DAY
A glance at her worldwide touring schedule in 2019 shows little sign that Lucy Dacus is slowing down, and in fact, she will release a series of songs titled 2019 to celebrate.
Recorded in here-and-there studio spurts over the last two years, 2019 will be released later this year as a physical EP, and will be made up of originals and cover songs tied to specific holidays, each of which will drop around their respective date: Valentine’s Day, Taurus season and US Mother’s Day, American Independence Day, Springsteen’s Birthday, Halloween, Christmas, and New Year’s.
In honour of Valentine’s Day, Dacus has released a cover of Edith Piaf’s La Vie En Rose sung in both French and English. Dacus clear vocals and faint vibrato float over the chiming piano, a starry-eyed, upbeat take on the classic tune, and a hint at her pop-star potential. “From the first time I heard it, I thought ‘La Vie En Rose’ was a perfect song. Hearing it, I knew that, one day, I would fall in love,” says Dacus, adding “I want someone to listen to this while running at top speed to the doorstep of the person they adore, ready to profess their deep, undying love. (PS, there’s a longer story about singing this song as a duet with my middle school janitor, but it is not concise).”
Dacus uses her gift as a songwriter to help understand and cope with the world around her, including making sense of national holidays, often more geared towards social media boasts and manufactured consumerism than authentic celebration.
“What is going on,” she asks herself on these days, retreating from the heightened expectations of holidays to figure out what to make of them and to find her own meaning. “I’ve collected some songs from trying to answer that question,” she says, and “this series seems like the right place to put them next to each other. These songs are self-contained, not indicative of a new direction, just a willingness to do something different and sometimes even out of character.”
2018 was a milestone year for Richmond, VA’s Lucy Dacus. Her widely celebrated sophomore record, Historian, was met by a cavalcade of critical elation including Best Of 2019 coverage from The Guardian, Noisey, Pitchfork, The Line Of Best Fit and Rolling Stone among many others, features in MOJO (‘Rising’), BBC Entertainment & Arts, Loud & Quiet, Uncut, and plays across BBC 6 Music, Radio 2 and Radio X.
Her collaborative EP as 1/3 of boygenius (with Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers) became one of the most talked-about new projects of the year, and was heralded by publications including The Guardian, The Observer, i-D, New Statesman, Uncut and MOJO. Dacus headlined UK venues including London’s Islington Assembly Hall and Omeara, and made US national TV appearances on CBS This Morning, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and Last Call With Carson Daly.
INTERPOL RELEASE NEW SINGLE ‘FINE MESS’
Interpol kick off 2019 with new single ‘Fine Mess’
‘Fine Mess’ continues the invigorated creative spirit of 2018’s triumphant Top Ten album Marauder, presenting Interpol at their more urgent and essential – with Paul Banks’ feverish vocals and haunted lyrics telling of “a sanguine and starry pair, buoyed and dashed alike by their own dreams and appetites” interlocking with Daniel Kessler’s serpentine riffs and Sam Fogarino’s thundering rhythm section, distilled around the seditious refrain: ‘you and me / make a fine mess’.
‘Fine Mess’ is further testament to a band at their peak, and the first chapter in what promises to be yet another eventful year for Interpol
Marauder has seen Interpol embark on a world tour including legendary venues such as Hollywood Bowl, Sydney Opera House, two nights at Royal Albert Hall, and an upcoming headline at Madison Square Garden. They have made national TV appearances on both sides of the Atlantic, including Jools Holland, Stephen Colbert, Seth Myers and ARTE; released music videos featuring Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Kristen Stewart and Finn Wittrock, and received critical praise across the board, including The Guardian (**** ‘Album Of The Week’), MOJO (****), Q (****), The Independent (****), DIY (****) and others.
