US indie
See: The Forms return from a decade away with the excellently spectral, whispering ‘All Souls Day’
QUEENS, New York’s The Forms have been on sabbatical for, well, quite a while now, it’s fair to say. Their last album, Derealization, came out on fellow Five Boroughs label Threespheres a whole decade ago now, and proved the last of a run of three; since when, nada, until recent singles “Head Underwater”, crunchy and …
See: Foxx Bodies’ excellently fiery punk pounder ‘Room’ ahead of their November album
EMERGING from the scene down in Tucson, Arizona, when singer Bella Vanek, guitarist Bailey Moses, bassist Matt Vanek, and drummer Adam Bucholz got together and began to move in musical lockstep they knew they had something beautifully, caustically special. They named themselves Foxx Bodies, and they brought caustic six-stringed catharsis out to the wider world. …
News: Beirut to release a double set of early and rare material, ‘Artifacts’, in the spring; delight in ‘Fisher Island Sound’
ZACH CONDON’s gorgeous Beirut are set to release an overview of their early years next spring – a project whch has burgeoned from a collection of early EPs into a full-on, 26-track set. The collection, Artifacts, began to grow in ambition as Zach went digging through the archives. He picks up the thread: “When the …
See: King Ropes – ‘Magical Floating Eye’: outta their Montana eyrie with playful alt-rock
BASED in the small city of Bozeman, Montana, in the foothills of the Rockies, King Ropes have quietly going about their particular brand of whimsical, alt.psych rock since their 2017 debut, Dirt. There’s a little of Kurt Wagner’s husky, declamatory warmth and observation to their thang; a touch of the Malkmus absurds, a little Mr …
ALBUM REVIEW: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – ‘New Fragility’: raging at the state we’re in
On New Fragility, Alec Ounsworth looks at the state we’re in and calls it like he sees it; rage and horror is articulated with poetry and precision and more often than not with you being able to sing along with abandon
Soundtracks of Our Lives: Farmer Dave Scher
FARMER DAVE SCHER may be better known to you from the string of excellent bands he’s both been in and collaborated with down the years. He was a member of the brilliant West Coast country-psych outfit Beachwood Sparks, who took on Sade’s “By Your Side” and completely won (and actually chaps, while we’re here, could …
TRACK: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – ‘Where They Perform Miracles’: Alec brings the yearn and then some
ALEC OUNSWORTH’S Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are following up the double whammy of October’s twin single drop, “Thousand Oaks”/”Hesitation Nation” (which we adored here) with the beautiful and elegiac “Where They Perform Miracles”, from forthcoming new album, New Fragility. It’s intimate, has that beautiful, tremulous voice and bodes exceedingly well for the album, his first since …
TRACK: New Bums – ‘Billy, God Damn’: a freewheelin’ acoustic slide blues
ONE – and there are many more, but for now, this – one of the many reasons we over at Backseat Mafia love the good folks at Drag City, is that they have a huge roster of brilliant artists who mix and collaborate and create anew; and that DC fosters and releases such new breeds …
ALBUM REVIEW: Dope Body – ‘Crack A Light’: shriekin’ and howlin’ at the altar
Crack A Light really won’t disappoint if you like guitars that shriek and howl in hardcore-stoner distress. A righteous noise purging
TRACK: Yo La Tengo share the warm hush of ‘Bleeding’ from their new EP
AWW, YO LA TENGO, when they’re on (sleepy) fire, you just have to adore them; and they really are, right now. They’ve just shared a second song from their forthcoming Sleepless Night EP, to follow their blissful cover of The Byrds’ majestic “Wasn’t Born To Follow”. “Bleeding” is the only original on the single-sided five-tracker, …