Tag: Noise Rock

Categories
Playlists

Playlist: New tunes from 2023, part two

Happy Friday all!

For me, it’s an especially happy Friday because at the end of today’s work day, I’ll be off on vacation leave, taking a much needed break from the office and at the same time, these pages, for just over a week and a half. I’ll be sure to take full advantage of the time away and not think of anything except that moment and the next, and come back fully recharged and refreshed. But before I go, I’ve got one more blast of music to share with you all: part two of my ongoing New Music of 2023 playlist.

To be truthful, I can’t believe I’m posting another one if these already. I typically do each instalment of these four part series of new tunes for the year once every three months but it feels more like three minutes rather than months since the last time I did one. I can’t really recall very much of what I’ve done during the second quarter of 2023. It’s not that I haven’t appreciated each breath I’ve taken, moments shared with my lovely wife, etc and etc, but there’s been so much sameness, it’s hard to extract one moment from the next. It’s been working, eating, sleeping, and mostly more of the same.

Interestingly, the music I’ve been listening to hasn’t quite reflected this same feeling. It’s been for the most part very reflective and present and self-aware. Music that breathes with you and embraces you. It’s not something I purposely sought out but it found me nonetheless. Have a look through and see if you disagree, and don’t worry, it’s not all work and no play. There’s a bunch of fun jams thrown in there to shake things up for you as well.

But I won’t guide your thoughts too much, I’ll present the music that I’ve ridden on during these second three months of 2023. If you’re not sold on checking out all twenty-five, perhaps sample from a few of these highlights:

      • Daughter sets us off on the right track with “Be on you way”, the beautiful and breathless track from “Stereo mind game”, their first album in seven years
      • The brash yet melodic garage rock feels of “Love beyond the grave” reminds us all why we love what Crocodiles are all about
      • Montreal-based dream pop duo Bodywash and their track “Kind of light” had me wondering why on earth I’d never heard of them before this
      • The National are back up to their old tricks with “New Order t-shirt”, weaving stream of conscious narratives and haunting melodies that I dare you to not adore
      • Olivia Jean’s “Trouble” is dark, grimy, and glamourous, not to mention chock full of attitude
      • The ever brilliant James has released a new double album in celebration of their 40 years in existence, reimagining many of their iconic tunes with an orchestra and it includes wonderful new number called “Love make a fool”
      • Pond frontman Nicholas Allbrook is channeling Bowie in “Jackie”, an amazing tune off his new solo album, “Manganese”

Here is the entire playlist as I’ve created it:

1. “Be on your way” Daughter (from the album Stereo mind game)

2. “Sepsis” Blondshell (from the album Blondshell)

3. “Love beyond the grave” Crocodiles (from the album Upside down in heaven)

4. “Rushin’ river valley” Fruit Bats (from the album A river running to your heart)

5. “Major league” The Tallest Man on Earth (from the album Henry St.)

6. “Kind of light” Bodywash (from the album I held the shape while I could)

7. “Gamma rays” Temples (from the album Exotico)

8. “Slow burn” Rose City Band (from the album Garden party)

9. “American daughter” Beach House (from the EP Become)

10. “Flight paths” Great Lake Swimmers (from the album Uncertain country)

11. “New Order t-shirt” The National (from the album First two pages of Frankenstein)

12. “Time back” Indigo De Souza (from the album All of this will end)

13. “Gaagige” Zoon (from the album Bekka ma’iingan)

14. “Trouble” Olivia Jean (from the album Raving ghost)

15. “True mirror” Esben and the Witch (from the album Hold sacred)

16. “The likes of us” Lanterns on the Lake (from the album Versions of us)

17. “Visions” Frankiie (from the album Between dreams)

18. “Pretty Boy” Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds (from the album Council skies)

19. “Love make a fool (Orchestral version)” James (from the album Be opened by the wonderful)

20. “Jackie” Nicholas Allbrook (from the album Manganese)

21. “Joy’all” Jenny Lewis (from the album Joy’all)

22. “Social lubrication” Dream Wife (from the album Social lubrication)

23. “Silver girl” Spoon (from the EP Memory dust)

24. “Mór” Sigur Rós (from the album Átta)

25. “It’s just a bit of blood” bdrmm (from the album I don’t know)

Apple initiates  can click here to sample the above tracks as a whole playlist.

And as always, wherever you are in the world, I hope you continue to be well. Above all, enjoy the tunes.

If you’re interested in checking out any of the other playlists I’ve created and shared on these pages, you can peruse them here.

Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: Cults “Cults”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: Cults
Album Title: Cults
Year released: 2011
Year reissued: 2022
Details: Limited edition, 10th anniversary, gold foil, signed

The skinny: Here’s a recent record purchase that illustrates the current state of our vinyl collecting woes. Dream pop duo Cults announced the special edition 10th anniversary pressings of their incredible self-titled debut back in June 2021. I remember thinking the price a bit steep and the projected December delivery date a bit far out but I jumped on it anyways. I had fallen in love with this album back in 2011 and its retro sounding wall of sound escapades. It had been on my vinyl collection wish list for a while and I couldn’t remember the last time I had seen a whiff of it at any of my local record shops. I opted for a the gold foil version and of course, I went for the signed option, given that it wouldn’t cost me anything more. I had nearly forgotten about ordering it when last Christmas rolled around but then, I saw an update on their Instagram account explaining how it was wildly delayed. I completely understood and went on with my holidays. Later news was that it would be delivered in February but then that month sailed by without further updates. I checked in with the online shop in April and was told it was pressed but no shipping date had yet been provided. The band finally received them in June, nearly a year after the reissues were initially announced, and I got mine near the end of July. No harm, no foul, because as you can see, it’s lovely. But between you and me, with the rising costs of these things, the delays, and delivery charges, my purchasing has slowed to a crawl this year.

Standout track: “Go outside”

Categories
Tunes

Best tunes of 2020: #25 Gateway Drugs “Wait (medication)”

<< #26    |    #24>>

Back on Cinco de Mayo, 2015, I went to see Swervedriver perform at the now defunct Zaphod Beeblebrox in Ottawa’s Byward Market. I had been excited to see yet another re-formed shoegaze legend, but as much as I enjoyed their set, I found myself quite surprised to leave the show even more impressed by the opening act.

Los Angeles-based four-piece, Gateway Drugs, had only just released their debut album, “Magick spells” the month before, and they had already toured as support for noise rock and shoegaze icons Ride and The Jesus and Mary Chain. They were led by a trio of siblings – Noa (guitars), Liv (guitars), and Gabriel (drums) Niles – each sharing vocal duties, while the fourth member, Blues Williams, simply looked cool and accompanied them on guitars and bass. The quartet were all in black, leather, furs, and sunglasses and were playing a garage rock infused shoegaze that sounded at different points like early Dum Dum Girls, Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. I left the show with a copy of the aforementioned debut album on CD and duly fell in love with it. Its accomplished sound and the pop sensibility that lies just beneath the surface of all those roaring and screeching guitars could easily be traced back to the music surging through the veins of the Niles siblings (children of The Knack’s Prescott Niles).

I was convinced they were going to be huge.

But then, there was nothing but relative silence from the group for almost five years.

Fast forward to 2020, just a few short days after the WHO declared COVID-19 to be an honest-to-goodness pandemic and things started to shut down in earnest, a new Gateway Drugs single appeared, seemingly plucked out of the ether and there finally came the news of the long-awaited sophomore release. I say this last bit with my tongue firmly planted in cheek because perhaps I was one out of only a small handful whose interest hadn’t waned in the interim. This first single really got me excited and that was only multiplied by fifty or so when I learned that “PSA” was produced by The Raveonettes’ Sune Rose Wagner.

“Put myself on a leash, I’d stay
Kill myself just to hear you call my name”

Of course, that first single was none other than “Wait (medication)”, our song of focus today. I’ve read that Liv Niles has called it a reflection on excess, madness, addiction, and how “extreme highs give way to extreme lows.” It’s an apt Coles Notes for the jackhammer drum beat, crunchy bass line, clanging and twangy guitar screams, and the dual vocal assault by Liv and her brother Noa. It is a four-minute salacious stroll down the chaotic and messy trail blazed by the JAMC and the BRMC.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2020 list, click here.