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Julien Baker shares new single and lyric video for 'Heatwave'
Today, Julien Baker shares Heatwave, a single from her album Little Oblivions, out this Friday, February 26th.
The track follows up Baker’s previously released singles, Hardline, Faith Healer and Favor which features boygenius collaborators Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus.
Julien Baker on “Heatwave”
“Maybe it’s a trite or well-trod topic, but ‘Heatwave’ is really just about being confronted with how much time I spend worrying about things that are trivial. I was stuck in traffic because a car had randomly combusted, and it made me feel so stupid for being concerned with the things I had been anxious about earlier that day. It was just such a poignant thing, an event that communicated a lot of complex things in a single image. So I wrote a song about it. I know I’m not the first person to witness an atrocity and consider my own mortality or life’s fragility because of it, but that truly was my experience. Theoretically the lesson or symbolism to be interpreted there is that life is precious and it’s not worth it to give your time and energy to negative thoughts, but jesus, how could you be a person alive on earth right now and not have negative thoughts? It’s certainly less romantic to say that the consideration of life’s fragility made me feel relieved at my own inconsequence, but it’s true; it is comforting to think of the minuscule role everyone plays in the human drama, to realize we have more choice about what we give power over us than we maybe thought.”
This Thursday, Julien will appear on CBC Radio’s q with Tom Power. Friday, NPR Music will host a listening party event at 2PM EST via their NPR Music YouTube featuring Julien Baker and special guests Mackenzie Scott (aka Torres) and journalist Jewly Hight in a discussion about the album.
She also recently announced her first streamed concert in support of the album, taking place on March 25th. The fully-produced streaming concert will be broadcast from Nashville’s Analog (at Hutton Hotel) via STAGED, Audiotree’s acclaimed virtual concert series. Three screenings will air on March 25 to ensure fans worldwide can tune in during prime time. Screening times are 8pm AEDT, 7pm GMT, and 9pm EDT. Tickets start at $15 and are available exclusively at https://audiotree.tv/stream/julien-baker
Tune-Yards give dynamic performance of 'hold yourself' on the Late Show With Stephen Colbert
Last night, Tune-Yards gave a buoyant, invigorating performance of hold yourself. on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
“hold yourself.” is off of their forthcoming album, sketchy..
The duo of Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner were joined by longtime drummer Hamir Atwal as well as a saxophonist and singers in the brightly chromatic setting that could be pulled directly from a child’s imagination.
Beneath the layered sounds of “hold yourself.” lies a clear-eyed moment of grief and simmering rage that builds from the song’s calming introduction to its explosive culmination.
Unlike the lyrical introspection of Tune-Yards’ last release, i can feel you creep into my private life, on sketchy. Merrill balances self-inspection and reflection with bombastic rallying cries, reminiscent of the furious tones of early days Tune-Yards.
The result is a colorful and joyous record with lyrics that cut to the bone. “I started remembering that people come to us to be entertained, to move, to feel joy. And together, I think, we can wake up.”
Smerz release new single and video 'Flashing'
Smerz release ‘Flashing’, the latest single taken from their forthcoming debut album Believer, which is released in full this Friday.
The duo says that “Flashing is about losing the feeling about being a team in a relationship.”
‘Flashing’ comes with a video directed by Benjamin Barron and with a costume by Bror August, the fourth video for Smerz from the creative pair, who also worked together on the artwork for the record.
Norwegian electronic duo Smerz cultivate their electronic pop sound further with ‘Flashing’, a track based around a 90s style euro-dance hook. Previous ‘Believer’ tracks have garnered acclaim from The New York Times, Pitchfork, Paper, Resident Advisor, Bleep, and more.
On Saturday, March 20th Smerz invite you on a journey from Rome to Oslo, from the baroque through modernism, the early 2000s and into the future, via a live stream performance that’ll air on their Bandcamp
Recorded at Ultima Festival, Victoria Nasjonal Jazzscene, Oslo Norway, September 14th 2020. The stream will start on Saturday, 20th March 2021 at 22:00 CET, 21:00 GMT.
Smerz will also be performing live on 30th May at Vega in Copenhagen.
Interpol - 'Mind Over Time'
Interpol has released Mind Over Time, from the sessions for their third album Our Love To Admire originally released in 2007.
Previously only available on the Japanese CD edition of the album, the track is now widely available to stream
Dry Cleaning Announce Debut Album New Long Leg New Single ‘Strong Feelings’ + Video Released Today
Dry Cleaning are delighted to announce details of their debut studio album and have shared a new single ‘Strong Feelings’.
The South London group of Nick Buxton (drums), Tom Dowse (guitar), Lewis Maynard (bass) and Florence Shaw (vocals) will release New Long Leg on 2 April.
The 10-track long-player, which includes ‘Strong Feelings’ and last year’s single ‘Scratchcard Lanyard’, was recorded over two weeks last summer at Rockfield Studios in rural Wales with producer John Parish (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding).
New single ‘Strong Feelings’ is a love song, of sorts. Shaw says, “it’s about secretly being in love with someone who doesn’t know it, and Brexit’s disruptive role in romantic relationships.” Its accompanying visuals, directed by guitarist Dowse, came about after Google searches brought together an informational video on road building basics from New Zealand and Massachusetts-based glitch artist, Sabato Visconti.
Following on from their thrillingly taut 2019 EPs Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks and Sweet Princess, New Long Leg is more ambitious and complex, with Shaw’s spoken vocals tightly intertwined with the band’s restless instrumentals. With lyrics preoccupied by themes like dissociation, escapism, daydreaming, complicated feelings of love, anger, revenge, anxiety, the kitchen, lethargy, forgetfulness, and survival, Shaw says, “the title is ambiguous; a new long leg could be an expensive present or a growth or a table repair.”
Dry Cleaning was formed by friends Tom Dowse, Nick Buxton and Lewis Maynard after a karaoke party in 2017 inspired a collaboration. They wrote instrumentally to begin with until six months later Florence Shaw, a visual artist, university lecturer and picture researcher by day – with no prior musical experience – turned up to a band rehearsal armed with reams of her own collected writing and a copy of Michael Bernard Loggins’ Fears Of Your Life to read out over the music. Before long she was the group’s front-person, contributing words of her own, and serving as the perfect foil to the band’s music.
