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Originally released in 1996 as a limited fan-club pressing for Rockathon, Guided By Voices' Tonics And Twisted Chasers has always existed as an anomaly in Robert Pollard's vast discography. In many ways, the album serves as the tail of a creative comet that in just two years included the "classic line-up" trilogy of Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes, Under the Bushes, Under the Stars and countless singles that crammed endless hooks in their grooves. In the intervening space, Tonics And Twisted Chasers has taken on a mythic status. It's arguably Pollard's strangest, gnarliest, most enlightened record and also the fans first chance to see the stitches that bind his galaxy of songs. It's like peering at the caliber inside a watch, responsible for making the whole enterprise tick. This nineteen-song collaboration with guitarist Tobin Sprout could be interpreted as spontaneous sketches, late-night improvisations, ideas that blossomed later in the timeline ("Knock 'Em Flying" and "Key Losers"), but as with anything in Pollard's orbit, its intention is clear when heard as a cohesive whole. The Pollard tenet that "less is more" is on full display here. The songs rarely creep past ninety seconds and coalesce much like Pollard's collage-styled visual art. Arena anthems in miniature ("158 Years of Beautiful Sex") bash up against eerie piano laments ("Universal Nurse Finger") without any time to breathe, acoustic lullabies that sound like a Midwestern summer's twilight ("Look It's Baseball") segue into monochromatic post-rock ("Maxwell Jump"). The euphoric joy and obtuse melancholy in Pollard's voice is so palpable on the album's standout, "Dayton, Ohio - 19 Something & 5" (which has since become a live staple), that it's impossible to find a more autobiographical yarn in his catalog. The album's closest analog is 1993's Vampire On Titus, as it contains that album's prickly, dark and shimmering obfuscation that only reveals its beauty after repeated listens. Tonics And Twisted Chasers maintains the lore because the melodies are so strong. Using a primitive drum machine, Radio Shack effects, minimal instrumentation and the DIY spirit that guided them in the first place, Pollard and Sprout construct a masterpiece of pop that could only come from a basement in north Dayton, Ohio. Anyone in that hallowed era who happened upon it, kept it as a secret.

Hayden Thorpe hat sein drittes Soloalbum für den 27.September angekündigt. "Ness" ist inspiriert von Orford Ness in Suffolk, einem ehemaligen Militärstandort für die Entwicklung von Waffen während beider Weltkriege und des Kalten Krieges. Das 1993 vom National Trust erworbene und der Verwilderung überlassene Gebiet ist bis heute ein Ort des Paradoxen, des Geheimnisses und der ständigen Entwicklung. Thorpe's "Ness" ist eine Ode an Orford Ness, an den physischen Ort und an das Buch, das ihn inspiriert hat. Mit Wort und Bild haben der britische Bestseller-Autor Robert Macfarlane und Stanley Donwood darin einen kleinen modernen Mythos geschaffen. Teils Novelle, teils Prosagedicht, teils Mysterienspiel - in "Ness" vereinen sich ihre Fähigkeiten zu einer verblüffenden, beunruhigenden Wirkung und Thorpe erweckt die Lieder darin zum Leben.

Free Help is Minnesota trio Heart to Gold's celebration of the titular idea, conceived while broken down on the side of a road in Georgia. Recorded at Will Yip's Studio 4 and releasing on Memory Music, it's an expertly arranged, arena-sized rendering of the group's scrappy, bold guitar rock, a heartening mix of melodic punk, cavernous post-hardcore, and '90s alt-rock. It's the sound and feeling of a band growing into adulthood and maturity_singer Grant Whiteoak's writing is subtle and figurative, a result of deepening introspection spurred by years of touring.Free Help represents a push beyond Heart to Gold's long-time community, and a broadening of the boundaries of the project. The rich, spacious single "Can't Feel Me," released in February, evidenced this new sound and space, and record opener "Surrounded" leaves no room for doubt: This is Heart to Gold operating on a new level. It's a sleek, pit-ready thrasher, tearing at the seams with energy and intention, loaded with melody. There are classic, pedal-to-the-metal bangers, like "Get It Back" and "Blow Up the Spot," alongside the down-tempo drift of "Pandora," and the multi-movement epic "Belonging." Here it is, from Heart to Gold to you: Free Help.

Certified Silver by the BPI, Warnings/Promises was the band’s fourth album and their second to break into the Top 10 following the success of their previous album, The Remote Part. After the release of The Remote Part, the band had a change in personnel with Gavin Fox replacing bassist Bob Fairfoull and touring guitarist Allan Stewart became a permanent member.

Warnings/Promises saw them take a different approach to the writing process, involving the whole band for the first time with a sound that marked a shift towards melodic rock as well as contemporary folk. A more stripped back sound than their previous albums, it featured the singles I Understand It, El Capitan and lead single, Love Steals Us From Loneliness. Limited to 1000 copies for National Album Day UK.

Released in 2004, Antics cemented Interpol"s position as one of the most influential bands of their generation. The album"s dark, atmospheric soundscapes and frontman Paul Banks" signature vocals spawned iconic tracks such as "Slow Hands," "Evil," and "C"mere" and Antics continues to resonate with fans worldwide, solidifying its place as a modern classic.Formed in New York City, Interpol quickly rose to prominence with their unique blend of post-punk, shoegaze, and dark wave influences. Their debut album, Turn on the Bright Lights, became a critical and commercial success, establishing the band as a major force in alternative music. Over the course of their career, Interpol have released seven critically acclaimed studio albums including The Other Side of Make-Believe in July 2022.

The first few months of 2024 has seen IST IST’s growing popularity expand further. Now a full-time band, they played to over 8,000 people across the UK and Europe including a first visit to Scandinavia and the sell-out signs going up at multiple German and Dutch shows including the 1,100 capacity Doornroosje in Nijmegen. ‘Light A Bigger Fire’ will be the follow-up to ‘Protagonists’, which reached number 41 in the Official Album Chart on release in March 2023 as well as securing them their third set of top ten positions in the vinyl, independent and physical charts as well as the number one download in the week of release.

Jerry Paper’s tenth album Inbetweezer was written on the cusp of a major life change, after Paper decided to return to school and become a therapist. Its crooning rockers and catchy pop jams explore complicated feelings of in-between-ness, while indulging in total freewheeling play.

Transparent blue vinyl, limited to 1000 copies. Swedish Grammy Award winning rock duo Johnossi are back. John, Ossi and their long time partner keyboardist Mattias Franzén went back to basics and spent a lot of time together in the rehearsal room to write their eighth album "Forevers" (release September 27th). "When we were younger, that's where we did everything," the band explains. "Our instruments and our interplay were all the inspiration we needed and now we simply wanted to return to that feeling of tireless belief in ourselves". The result is an album described by the band themselves as "a distinct, big and fearless album". The album is produced by Måns Lundberg (Håkan Hellström, Deportees, Hurula etc.) and was recorded in Stockholm during spring.

The Heads’ Simon Price returns to his kandodo project with 'theendisinpsych'; "primitive pieces of psychedelic tuneage+years of wasted time=43 minutes of headphone bliss."

It's the follow up to the 2019 collaboration with Wayne Maskell and Hugo Morgan, Kandodo 3 – K3, but this time back in solo-mode. He is now relocated in Northumbria, and has recorded the album himself in his home studio, drawing on his wide collection of music/instruments and the rural environment for inspiration.

The new album fizzes and crackles with a verve that will activate the “turn on, tune in, drop out” sense in all listeners…

Simon explained the album in a focused/out of focus track by track way… is this Price’s paean to his obsession with Bowie? chamba7 - octave mandolin through fuzz, tambo beat, in praise of Bowie compilations. chamba is malawian weed

theendisinpsych - bought a reel to reel tape off ebay in 2005, ('Bowie radio interview tape, USA, 1970, 3 minutes?') then bought a machine to play it on in 2015. Heard the words and laid them onto a fuzzy break bed. Thought it all too relevant to today, prophetic David from his 'hippy' days (not a prophet or a stone age man)

fuzzy oceans - played on 1 string spamjo, bouncing echo over 70's drum machine, 'we've fucked the oceans'

freefalling - rolling cello and hissing cymbals with vocoder dreams comes with african/stationtostation artwork stylings for the sleeve..pre-apocalypse blues (and pinks), the world isn't going a good way a sumptuous 4 course sonic supper, tuck in.

With her proper full-length debut, Songs FromA Thousand Frames Of Mind, Virginia-born,LA-based songwriter Kate Bollinger redefinesand refines her craft with intention. Inspired bypop, rock, and folk songs of the 1960s,Bollinger and her band _ includingcollaborators Jacob Grissom, Adam Brisbin,Matthew E. White, and Sam Evian _ favor theeclectic, melodic, and majestic, supportingintimate, stream-of-consciousness lyricismwith classic instrumentation. It's a collection ofpop songs, polished yet scrappy with anunderlying punk spirit, navigating life,relationships, and growing up. The releasefollows a run of singles since her 2022 recordon Ghostly International, lauded by the likes ofNPR and The Fader, contributions to friend'sprojects (Drugdealer, Paul Cherry), and tourswith Faye Webster, Liz Phair, DevendraBanhart, and others.

With her proper full-length debut, Songs FromA Thousand Frames Of Mind, Virginia-born,LA-based songwriter Kate Bollinger redefinesand refines her craft with intention. Inspired bypop, rock, and folk songs of the 1960s,Bollinger and her band _ includingcollaborators Jacob Grissom, Adam Brisbin,Matthew E. White, and Sam Evian _ favor theeclectic, melodic, and majestic, supportingintimate, stream-of-consciousness lyricismwith classic instrumentation. It's a collection ofpop songs, polished yet scrappy with anunderlying punk spirit, navigating life,relationships, and growing up. The releasefollows a run of singles since her 2022 recordon Ghostly International, lauded by the likes ofNPR and The Fader, contributions to friend'sprojects (Drugdealer, Paul Cherry), and tourswith Faye Webster, Liz Phair, DevendraBanhart, and others.

KillerStar Reimagined features radically reworked versions and remixes of the songs from the KillerStar album. It features a slew of David Bowie Band alumni guests throughout the album including Mike Garson, Earl Slick, Gail Ann Dorsey, Donny McCaslin, Mark Plati, Emm Gryner, Tim Lefebvre. Joining Rob Fleming and James Sedge Collectively they have crafted a sound which fuses the scale of classic rock with sophisticated harmonies and elements of art rock. KillerStar's self-titled debut album has garnered critical acclaim from press on both sides of the Atlantic, earning 4/5 stars in both Mojo magazine and The Times newspaper. Music Connection praised the album for its "fresh art rock aesthetic" and "impeccable musicianship." Additionally, Q Magazine recognized KillerStar as "One of the Top 12 Most Exciting Acts in the World," while Vintage Guitar noted the band’s ability to merge classic rock with art rock, creating powerful melodies and harmonies. The KillerStar Reimagined album features additional production and remixing by Mark Plati, who has produced albums for David Bowie and The Cure, among many others. It also includes a remix by The Anchoress.

Larkin Poe"s new album "Bloom" sees the dynamic sister duo venturing further along on their evolving musical journey with a collection of songs that resonate with introspection, authenticity, and a profound connection to their roots in American music. Produced and largely co-written by Megan, Rebecca, and Tyler Bryant, the album marks a significant evolution for Larkin Poe, reflecting a synergy that extends beyond mere musical partnership. Already hailed for the sincerity of their songcraft, the Lovell sisters now place an even greater spotlight on their gift for storytelling, delving deep into personal narratives with universal themes of self-acceptance and individuality against a backdrop of contemporary blues and rock influences. With their distinctive blend of masterful instrumentation and soulful harmonies, each track unfolds like a chapter, with lyrics that wind deeper and deeper towards the heart of Larkin Poe.

Larkin Poe"s new album "Bloom" sees the dynamic sister duo venturing further along on their evolving musical journey with a collection of songs that resonate with introspection, authenticity, and a profound connection to their roots in American music. Produced and largely co-written by Megan, Rebecca, and Tyler Bryant, the album marks a significant evolution for Larkin Poe, reflecting a synergy that extends beyond mere musical partnership. Already hailed for the sincerity of their songcraft, the Lovell sisters now place an even greater spotlight on their gift for storytelling, delving deep into personal narratives with universal themes of self-acceptance and individuality against a backdrop of contemporary blues and rock influences. With their distinctive blend of masterful instrumentation and soulful harmonies, each track unfolds like a chapter, with lyrics that wind deeper and deeper towards the heart of Larkin Poe.

Lily Seabird is a perceptive songwriter who can channel moments when everything feels raw and overwhelming into something healing and galvanizing. With Alas, the Burlington, VT-based artist's sophomore album, she confronts grief with palpable clarity on tracks that careen from delicate folk to blistering indie rock. While it's her second LP, it serves as a proper introduction to an undeniable and idiosyncratic voice. "Alas, sounds way more like me," she says. "This is the album I wanted to make in the first place."Though Seabird is now known as a solo artist and collaborator in Burlington's vibrant music community as the bassist for Greg Freeman and other acts, her journey started in Pennsylvania when she picked up the saxophone as a kid. At 14, she learned guitar and started performing as Lily Seabird. After a brief stint in New York City playing in bands, she moved to Vermont, which has been her home since 2018. "When I came to Vermont, I was playing solo a lot but then I started a band with Greg Freeman," she says. "Since 2018, it's been me and Greg and a bunch of different casts of characters have been in the band since then it's an ever-evolving thing. It's just us playing my songs."The songs on Alas, came from a particularly unmoored period for Seabird. "I wrote this album in 2021 and 2022 on the road, trying to figure out who I am," she says. "A lot of them also deal with the time when my close friend passed away. The title Alas, meant a lot to her." Even if the songs don't always directly tackle this specific loss, there's a sense of mourning in how relationships change and dissolve. Take "Grace," a reflection on female friendship, which features the lines, "I hope she's happy now she should be 25 / She taught me something that I thought I'd always hide." Elsewhere, the knotty and unpredictable "Dirge" finds her singing, "I don't know if I believe in god / I don't know if I know how to go on." Seabird and Benny Yurco produced Alas, which was recorded at Burlington's Little Jamaica Studios with Fr...

France-based, prog-rock power trio LIZZARD are out to reclaim the creative, collaborative energy that has fueled them for over a decade. On `Mesh', the band's fifth full length album, LIZZARD capture the energetic, lightning-in-a-bottle optimism of the late `90s post-punk/art-rock scene and reinvigorate it as something empowering, inspiring and simmering with potential.Recorded by the band in the abandoned factory they use as their creative base and produced again by now long-time friend and collaborator Peter Junge, `Mesh' is LIZZARD unleashing the raw, spontaneous might of their pent up live sound through the production precision of their studio experience. As such, themes of duality and control, whether it's regaining it or letting it go, run right through the album. Resounding with Elwell's inimitable, thundering drums and a barrage of colossal riffs, `Black Sheep' explores the dichotomy of body and mind, of black and white, that we all wrestle with on a daily basis whilst the mellow polyrhythms and plaintive melodies of `Mad Hatters' ask pressing questions of the people who are supposedly in charge of society.Epic album closer `The Beholder' captures the reinvigorated LIZZARD at their bracing best; bittersweet guitar refrains are bolstered by Will Knox's signature driving basslines and crashing half-time grooves as frontman Ricou considers the great cycle of life from his own perspective. Testament to the band's formidable compositional prowess, `The Beholder' ends as it starts, a closed loop. With only Ricou's playful, pithy refrain of "What goes around, comes around" left ringing in our ears, LIZZARD masterfully frame `Mesh' as both a poignant conclusion to the last chapter and as a bright new beginning.

Lynyrd Skynyrd are more than just a Rock band. Hailing from the swamps of Florida their music is a gritty mix of Rock, Blues and Country, washed down with a liberal slug of bourbon. In one form or another Skynyrd have existed for almost half a century. 'Sweet Home Alabama', 'Call me The Breeze', 'Woman Of Mine' and the immortal 'Free Bird' are among the most famous rock songs ever recorded. This LP contains live songs, recorded in 1973. A: 1. I Ain't the One2. Call Me The Breeze3. Sweet Home Alabama4. Workin' For MCAB: 5. Woman Of Mine6. Freebird

A sense of destiny hangs over Sentir Que No Sabes, Mabe Fratti’s fourth solo-credited album released in a five year span. Her work has always possessed a finely tuned sense of drama capable of expressing a range of emotional states, and across this new album, she conveys the struggle to process various relationships or situations–and the actions that come next. Sentir Que No Sabes is urgent and clear, poppy, generous and approachable, while showcasing a considerable emotional hinterland. It is also, as Fratti is quick to mention, “groovy.”

Written and recorded with her partner, multi-instrumentalist, and co-composer Héctor Tosta (I.La Católica, Titanic), Sentir Que No Sabes is the result of an intense, detail-oriented process. Fueled by a new confidence gained in their collaborative project, Titanic, and its critically acclaimed 2023 LP, Vidrio, the two hunkered down in the familiarity of their studio (aka Tinho Studios) to bash out the initial sonic coordinates of her new record. “We talked and talked, and discussed ways of playing and recording, until things became inevitable,” Fratti explains. “We recorded a bunch of demos at our home studio and that meant we had a lot of time to re-edit and experiment. We really dug in. We were super focused on detail.” Tosta also took up the controls as producer and arranger-in-chief for all additional instruments. The album was later completed at Willem Twee Studios in Den Bosch in the Netherlands, and Pedro y el Lobo Studios and Soy Sauce Studios, in Mexico City.

For the final studio recordings, the pair were joined by drummer Gibran Andrade and trumpetist Jacob Wick to fill out and expand on Tosta’s percussion and brass arrangements. This small group of friends were able to work quickly and openly, and without fear: a testament to the exhaustive groundwork put in at Tinho Studios.

Sentir Que No Sabes is a record full to the brim with a modern pop sensibility, invoked by the sort of magpie spirit that ensnares anything it can find, repositioning sounds for the here and now. The keys and melody on the melancholy “Pantalla azul” (“Blue screen error”) transport us back to the glossy mid-1980s.

The lyrics, for their part, have a stop-start quality to them, and hint at the small, incremental emotional taxes we pay through just living our lives. They circle around the music like birds waiting to swoop. There is something of the spiritual in all of Fratti’s work that expresses itself in a form of yearning: she looks to new horizons while personal dramas find themselves internalized, contextualized, and then dealt with through metaphor.

So what to make of Sentir Que No Sabes? High gloss Pastoralism? The sound of a city-bound, post-post modern soulscape? No matter the emotions evoked, it's the work of an artist coming into their own, and creating a benchmark record.

Helsinki Surf City - Mary Ann Hawkins' second album out in February 2025

Finnish surf rock sultans Mary Ann Hawkins are back with another wave hitting the shores around the world next February. Riding the mighty new wave of Finnish Surf Rock, Mary Ann Hawkins are the No. 1 surfing group in the country. Equally comfortable surfing the arid spaghetti western desert as well as the thousand lakes of Finland, these sweaty but impeccably dressed young men present you with twelve tunes just right for surf-dancing.

For many moons now the Helsinki-based quintet has driven audiences wild across the old continent, especially in their native land of Finland. Having self-released two EP records and the debut self titled album in 2022 via Svart Records, the group are now preparing for the release of their sophomore album Helsinki Surf City in February 2025. With the new album the band has added their twist to their instrumental, dynamic surf sound they are known for by adding renowned Finnish vocalists to feature on some of the tracks. Stepa, Marko Haavisto, Maria Stereo and Minja Koski known as M add the cherries on top of the whitecaps making this album a joyous, beautiful, dangerous, action-packed and even a bit of a frightening trip. Ride the big one, ride the Helsinki Surf City!

Helsinki Surf City - Mary Ann Hawkins' second album out in February 2025

Finnish surf rock sultans Mary Ann Hawkins are back with another wave hitting the shores around the world next February. Riding the mighty new wave of Finnish Surf Rock, Mary Ann Hawkins are the No. 1 surfing group in the country. Equally comfortable surfing the arid spaghetti western desert as well as the thousand lakes of Finland, these sweaty but impeccably dressed young men present you with twelve tunes just right for surf-dancing.

For many moons now the Helsinki-based quintet has driven audiences wild across the old continent, especially in their native land of Finland. Having self-released two EP records and the debut self titled album in 2022 via Svart Records, the group are now preparing for the release of their sophomore album Helsinki Surf City in February 2025. With the new album the band has added their twist to their instrumental, dynamic surf sound they are known for by adding renowned Finnish vocalists to feature on some of the tracks. Stepa, Marko Haavisto, Maria Stereo and Minja Koski known as M add the cherries on top of the whitecaps making this album a joyous, beautiful, dangerous, action-packed and even a bit of a frightening trip. Ride the big one, ride the Helsinki Surf City!

Meatbodies’ latest undertaking and borderline lost album, Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom, is their most varied and realized work to date. It’s a melodic, hook-filled rock epic in which frontman and lead guitarist Chad Ubovich faces the trials of sobriety, redemption, reinvention while literally learning to walk and play again. Resurrection not only accompanies the record, but its production as well, Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom examines themes surrounding love and loss, escapism, defeatism, hedonism, psychedelics and much more.

By 2017, Ubovich had reached a crossroads. After years of increasingly insane shows playing to heaving crowds with an ever-evolving and rotating door of personnel, fatigue had taken its toll and he realized another change was on the horizon. Retreating to the seedy Los Angeles underbelly—in search of meaning and a reset—he escaped into that world, ignoring his own well being, trying to forget his successes. It was at this point that Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom began to take shape—a project built by a man searching for new beginnings and his own sense of self. After sobering up, sessions began with longtime collaborator Dylan Fujioka. However, due to discrepancies with the studio, tensions were high and the plug was pulled. And as the world took a back seat, so did the idea of Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom. Not wanting to sit still at home, Ubovich began to comb through his previous demos, and, with that, 333 was born, the now de facto third Meatbodies album. Yet Flora was never far from Ubovich’s mind.

When restrictions started to lift, Ubovich headed to Gold Diggers Sound in Los Angeles, backed by engineer Ed McEntee and a team of colleagues and friends, and completed the final act to the album. It recalls the searing Blue Cheer-meets-Iggy Pop-with-psychedelia that permeated previous releases, but adds new elements of shoegaze, classic alternative, Britpop, drone, and hints of country. Simultaneously an ode to ’80s LA punk and the rise of indie / alternative music in the U.K., it plays like a radio station broadcasting from the void.

The new album, ‘Limerence,’ originally completed in 2019, was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. During this time, Meishi Smile's Faye shelved the project and released the industrial metal album Ressentiment instead, full of frustration. After this period, Faye reformed Meishi Smile into a band with bassist Jason and drummer Zachary, completing Limerence in a completely new version.

The album mixes shoegaze, Japanese pop, 90s alternative rock, and 2010s indie nuances into a hypnotic yet raw meditative electro-pop sound.

Meishi Smile is an emotional electronic project led by Faye In, a producer and visual artist from the US. Known for running the net label Zoom Lens from 2009 to 2022, Faye debuted in 2014 with the album Lust, pioneering the internet underground scene. The project's diverse influences range from hyperpop to synth-pop, receiving accolades from The Line of Best Fit, The Fader, NPR, and Pitchfork.

In 2024, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Lust, Meishi Smile plans to release a special Lp/cd edition along with the new album Limerence.

For fans of: the bilinda butchers, Castlebeat, Letting Up Despite Great Faults, MoritaSaki in the pool, New Order, Pasocom Music Club, The Radio Dept., Teen Daze, Ulrich Schnauss, Wild Nothing, and more.