Breaking News
LIZ PHAIR SHARES RE-MASTERED VIDEO FOR “STRATFORD-ON-GUY”
Liz’s first-hand account of how the “Stratford-On-Guy” video came to be:
“We were in talks with labels about the second record – Matador was being courted by Atlantic – and Danny Goldberg came backstage to meet me. I told him about my idea for the next video – ‘Stratford-On-Guy’ – explaining that we were stalled due to budget constraints. He asked ‘what do you need?’ I said, ‘a private plane to fly over downtown LA and get footage at night.’ I wanted to shoot the electric veins of the city. He just said, ‘done!’ It was one of those real rock star moments.
So my husband, his friend Michael Mees, who was the DP, and I went up in this 8 seater Leer jet and got the greatest footage ever. We were literally flying sideways so Michael could shoot straight down over the rooftops of all the buildings. We were executing these tight turns above the skyscrapers and the G force was incredible. You could feel your internal organs dragging to the other side of your body cavity. Michael was using this really heavy camera and Jim, my husband, had to hold onto him as we shot. The lens of the camera was pressing down against the window pane and I remember Michael nervously joking – and not really in jest – that the glass beneath him better hold. It was so fun. We made two approaches into the airport so we could capture that fantastic runway lighting. Those images are etched in my memory forever. I seem to recall I somehow wedged my head up between the pilots like a dog peering over the backseat so I could see that awesome 180* cockpit view, too. Good times!”
“Yup. That’s pretty much exactly how it happened!” -Chris Lombardi (Matador founder)
Nines - Crop Circles
To introduce the release of his second LP for XL Recordings, Nines presents Crop Circle, a short film written, directed and co-produced by Nines. From the off, Nines proves that he’s as deft with film as he is with his lyrics. A long-time cinema buff, Nines presents a beautifully shot, moral tale of life on London’s estates.
Filmed on and around the Church Road Estate in North West London, where Nines grew up, the short film is a perfect transfer of Nines’ iconic brand of music directly on to celluloid– a gritty, realistic tale filled with humour and presented in his signature, laid-back fashion. Sound-tracked by selects from his forthcoming Crop Circle LP, the film sees a myriad of cameos, including an iconic scene with J Hus hollering from his Audi R8 at Nines riding a Boris bike, and also includes the rest of the cream of the UK rap scene; MIST, Mostack, Skrapz, Ghetts, Kurupt FM’s Grindah and Beats, and many more.
The forthcoming LP of the same name is another step forward for Nines. Crop Circle, his second LP to date, follows last year’s debut One Foot Out (which charted at No.4 in the U.K).
With its depiction of life on the Church Road Estate presented with a ton of humour and a few sobering moments, not since Hova first appeared has someone balanced that gritty realism in such a brilliantly playful and witty manner. Crop Circle contains the previously released, Top 40 single I See You Shining and sees star turns from Ray BLK, Skrapz, Tiggs Da Author and Dave, as well as appearances from up-and-coming stars of the UK rap underground.
Princess Nokia - “A GIRL CRIED RED” New Mixtape From Shape-Shifting New York City Emcee
Today Princess Nokia - aka shapeshifting New York emcee Destiny Frasqueri –has dropped her new emo-inspired mixtape A Girl Cried Red digitally on Rough Trade Records, as well as a video co-directed with longterm collaborator Milah Libin for “Your Eyes Are Bleeding” from the release.
Princess Nokia has been releasing music via Youtube and Soundcloud since she was in High School and catapulted herself to the next level with last year’s critically acclaimed rap opus 1992 Deluxe selling out venues across the globe and steadily gaining tens of millions of streams.
“Black people created punk - the band Death was way before The Ramones,” Destiny stated in a recent interview. “If you think about it, the wool has been pulled over our eyes. This is our shit. Very naturally, that’s why we return to it.”
Drawing on influences as varied as the introverted acoustic sounds of Elliott Smith to the bombastic pop-punk energy of Paramore – “A Girl Cried Red” showcases another fully-formed side of Destiny that still taps into the uncompromising feminist ideology of Princess Nokia.
Track Listing
Flowers & Rope
Your Eyes Are bleeding
For The Night
Look Up Kid
Interlude
Morphine
At The Top
Little Angel
Gang Gang Dance : New Album 'Kazuashita', New Single, 'Lotus'
After a seven-year hiatus, Gang Gang Dance have announced their return.
One of the most enduring and creatively vibrant musical acts of 21st Century New York, their new album Kazuashita will be released on 22nd June.
Kazuashita – the band’s first record together since the acclaimed Eye Contact in 2011 – is an intoxicating mix of shoegaze and electronic ambience, all held together by Lizzi Bougatsos and her otherworldly vocal.
Bougatsos, alongside founding members Brian DeGraw and Josh Diamond, formed the group as an improvisational outfit in the early 2000s, and have consistently worked to blur the boundaries between music and art; as comfortable today performing at the Whitney Biennial as they are at Coachella, and count Dash Snow & Nate Lowman, Tinchy Stryder and the Boredoms as previous collaborators.
Kazuashita was produced by DeGraw after recording sessions across several New York studios and art spaces, the band worked with drummer Ryan Sawyer (who met the band through the Boredoms’ BOADRUM project) and Jorge Elbrecht (who worked on additional production and mixing duties).
‘Lotus’, the lead track taken from the record, is an ecstatic mix of deranged soul and hazy synthesizer ambience. Listen here.
Gruff Rhys To Release New Album 'Babelsberg' On 8th June
We are thrilled to welcome Gruff Rhys back to Rough Trade Records, and to announce that he will release Babelsberg, his fifth album and first for Rough Trade, since 2007’s classic ‘Candylion’, on 8th June 2018.
Watch the official video for the album’s opening track “Frontier Man”
Gruff explains: “I’d made a note of the name after driving past a sign when I was on tour in 2014. Cut to a few years later and the studio where I recorded the album was being knocked down just a week after I finished to make way for a ‘luxury’ apartment development. I was looking for a name that evoked the Tower of Babel – people building towers to reach an idea of heaven (but maybe creating a kind of hell – I’m an atheist by the way!) In any case I had written “Babelsberg” down and when I listened to the songs together, it finally made sense why I’d done that.”
The album’s ten tracks were initially recorded in early 2016 in a whirlwind three day session that took place before producer Ali Chant’s studio was demolished. The band he gathered for the record were his regular drummer Kliph Scurlock (ex-Flaming Lips) and multi-instrumentalists Stephen Black (Sweet Baboo) and Osian Gwynedd. The ten tracks then hibernated for eighteen months, awaiting orchestral scores by Swansea based composer Stephen McNeff and the incredible work of the 72 piece BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
The result is Gruff’s best record to date – a ten song gazetteer of modern times, each track set to timeless, indelible melody.
‘Babelsberg’ tracklisting: 1. Frontier Man / 2. The Club / 3. Oh Dear! / 4. Limited Edition Hearts / 5. Take That Call / 6. Drones in the City / 7. Negative Vibes / 8. Same Old Song / 9. Architecture of Amnesia / 10. Selfies in the Sunset
