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QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE - VILLAINS - OUT AUGUST 25 ON MATADOR RECORDS
Hundreds of epic shows, memory lapses, unexplained injuries, one yearlong detour with Iggy Pop and multiple Grammy nominations later, Queens Of The Stone Age reemerge from the desert newly scarred and somehow strangely prettier with lucky seventh album, Villains, out August 25 on Matador Records.
First taste of Villains is the soon to be classic ‘The Way You Used To Do’
“The title Villains isn’t a political statement. It has nothing to do with Trump or any of that shit. It’s simply 1) a word that looks fantastic and 2) a comment on the three versions of every scenario: yours, mine and what actually happened… Everyone needs someone or something to rail against—their villain—same as it ever was. You can’t control that. The only thing you can really control is when you let go.“—Joshua Homme
Produced by Mark Ronson and co-produced by Mark Rankin and mixed by Alan Moulder, Villains is the first full album offering from Queens Of The Stone Age since 2013’s …Like Clockwork gave the band its first #1 album in the U.S. (and #1s in Australia, Belgium, Ireland, Portugal, Scotland, #2s in the UK, Canada, Switzerland, Norway, New Zealand, Finland… but really, who’s counting?).
Like the stunning artwork of returning illustrator Boneface, the sonic signatures of the lineup that took …Like Clockwork around the world and back—Founder/guitarist/vocalist/lyricist Joshua Homme, Troy Van Leeuwen (guitar, keys), Michael Shuman (bass), Dean Fertita (keys, guitar), Jon Theodore (drums)—are as unmistakable as ever, though coexisting with sufficient new twists to induce recurring double takes. As Homme himself puts it, “The most important aspect of making this record was redefining our sound, asking and answering the question ‘what do we sound like now?’ If you can’t make a great first record, you should just stop—but if you can make a great record but you keep making records and your sound doesn’t evolve, you become a parody of that original sound.”
Of his role working within such a closed and confident ecosystem as Queens Of The Stone Age, Ronson says, “Queens are and have always been my favourite rock n roll band ever since I walked into Tower on Sunset and bought Rated R in the summer of 2000, so it was incredibly surreal to be welcomed into their secret, pirate clan—or the ‘jacuzzi’ as Josh likes to call it. I also knew that my super fandom alone would not keep me in the jacuzzi. There were moments during the making of the album in which i was aware i was watching my musical heroes craft something that was sure to become one of my favourite moments on any Queens album. And to have some part in that felt like being in a dream—a very heavy, dark, wonderful dream.”
Longtime Queens cohort co-producer Mark Rankin added, “After the baptism of fire that was …Like Clockwork, I was excited to get into the studio again with the challenge of pushing the sound for this record, especially with the the addition of Ronson into the creative mix. We wanted to evolve the production to be processed in a modern way yet be totally organic and still performed fully live, like lifting a veil and what you thought was electronic is actually live and things are not as they first appear… What we’ve made is forward looking yet unmistakably Queens.”
Queens Of The Stone Age have also confirmed a slew of North American dates filling in the space between and beyond their previously announced appearances at Outside Lands and Riot Fest. The new shows include a stop at Toronto’s Molson Amphitheatre (Budweiser Stage) on September 9th.
METHYL ETHEL NEW SINGLE AND VIDEO
Methyl Ethel, the brainchild of musical polymath Jake Webb, has shared a new single and accompanying video for ‘Drink Wine’. The bold track opens the second studio album by the band, Everything Is Forgotten.
Directed by Paxi (behind the surrealism-flavoured visuals for ‘Ubu’) and filmed in Sydney, Australia, ‘Drink Wine’ is the Perth-based outfit’s fourth single.
Off the back of a sold-out tour in their native Australia, Methyl Ethel are currently in the middle of a run of European dates. The band will return to North America for Austin City Limits and to support The Drums in November, including two Canadian dates.
11 November – TORONTO, The Mod Club
13 November – MONTREAL, Theatre Fairmount
ALGIERS RELEASE NEW SINGLE CLEVELAND
Algiers have released new single ‘Cleveland’, taken from their forthcoming second album, The Underside Of Power, released June 23 on Matador.
As a reference and tribute to Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old black boy who was shot and killed by police in November 2014, ‘Cleveland’ is a gripping gospel, Detroit techno and punk-fuelled call to arms that manages to be menacing and life affirming all at once.
“A recurring theme in our music is the idea of injustice and the bitter understanding that obtaining justice in this world is all but impossible—particularly for black and brown people,” says frontman and lyricist Franklin James Fisher. “I wanted the song to sound like the Final Judgement in the Bible, wherein the wicked are judged and condemned by the righteous with all the “weeping and gnashing of teeth,” of the damned when justice is finally realised. This translates in the “solo” section of the song. It consists of various recordings of people inconsolably crying and weeping while the guitar and lead vocal mirror their contortions. If you’ve ever witnessed something like that in real life, sound of a person’s sorrow is equal parts frightening and musical.”
While the song title invokes Tamir Rice, the lyrics summon Kindra Chapman, Andre Jones, Lennon Lacy, Sandra Bland, Roosevelt Pernell, Keith Warren and Alfred Wright, similarly victims of state sanctioned violence. It also makes a link with theorist Walter Benjamin’s work on divine violence, placing justice against the law, wherein the American legal system is complicit in the murder and enslavement of oppressed people.
Currently bringing their powerful live show to arenas across Europe in support of Depeche Mode throughout June and July, Algiers will continue to their own headline North American dates later in July including a July 13th stop in Vancouver
ALDOUS HARDING REVEALS VIDEO FOR SINGLE ‘BLEND’
Aldous Harding, the compelling artist from New Zealand, has revealed a new video for the single ‘Blend’.
Taken from her latest album, Party, the visuals for ‘Blend’ were created by Charlotte Evans, the New Zealand filmmaker also responsible for Harding’s previous videos for Horizon and Imagining My Man
Disquieting in its nature, and inspired by Francis Ford Coppola’s legendary war film Apocalypse Now, Harding goes into further detail –
“The concept is based on that awful scene from ‘Apocalypse Now’ where the playmates pile out of the helicopter. The costume was handmade for me, it turned out great. It’s in the bin. I spent eight hours dancing on a Lazy Susan, it was easy really. Obviously I know what it is… The song itself was written in an AirBnB in Bristol the night before going into the studio.”
Harding’s second album Party was produced with the award-winning John Parish (PJ Harvey, Sparklehorse) in his hometown of Bristol, taking Harding away from her New Zealand base for an intensive two-week immersion in the studio. As well as a raft of musical contributions from Parish, Perfume Genius’s Mike Hadreas lends vocals to recent single ‘Imagining My Man’ and Party closer ‘Swell Does The Skull’. Party has dazzled the critics, leading to a startling performance of ‘Horizon’ on Later… with Jools Holland (which can be viewed here).
Harding continues her North American tour with stops in Toronto (June 12th – Velvet Underground), Vancouver (July 31st – Biltmore) and Calgary (August 2nd – Palomino)
“Harding is nothing less than amazing – a nuanced musician, a startling writer and a presence so intense.”
The Observer *****
”Spellbinding songs.” The Guardian ****
“Party recalls Perhacs and Bunyan, Nico and Joni, but these are thoroughly modern songs – and very much Harding’s own.” Uncut 8/10
“Understated yet charismatic, Harding has the gift of making reality seem like a very fragile and porous thing indeed.” Q ****
“Truly captivating.” DIY ****
“A talent at the very start of her creative life.” Loud And Quiet (8/10)
IBEYI SHARE NEW SONG “AWAY AWAY”
Ibeyi have released a new song titled Away Away
“Away Away” pushes forward the unique, cross-cultural sound that Ibeyi have become so widely recognised for.
The duo, who split their time between Paris, Cuba and London, explain that the song is about “looking out onto the world’s craziness, which is symbolised by the sirens heard in the track, and wondering if the promises of a better world will be made true?” Culminating with a Yoruba chant for the Orisha Aggayu (the ferryman-like god who provides strength), the songs upbeat tempo carries the listener away with Ibeyi on their pursuit of affirming a better world.
Ibeyi is 22-year-old French-Cuban twins Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi Diaz. Since the release of their critically-acclaimed, self-titled debut album in February 2015, Ibeyi have been captivating audiences across the globe with their unique blend of modern pop, hip-hop and electronic influenced with the traditional sounds of Yorùbá.
