Adrianne Lenker — Bright Future (4AD)

Photo by Germaine Dunes

On Adrianne Lenker’s last solo outing, 2020’s songs & instrumentals, it was just the artist, producer/engineer Philip Weinrobe, plus the rain and birds that could be heard from the cabin retreat where Weinrobe recorded direct to tape. Dominated by radiant finger-picked guitar and vulnerable voice, the double album had a consistent, intimate feel all its own. Though the recording process for Bright Future continued Weinrobe’s all-analog working methods, this time she's joined by Nick Hakim on vocals and piano, Mat Davidson (Twain) on vocals, piano and violin, and Josefin Runsteen on vocals, percussion and violin. This expanded instrumentation and collaborative spirit lends these songs a more eclectic flavor.

The most immediately striking songs are those dominated by piano, such as opener “Real House,” centerpiece “Evol,” and closer “Ruined,” demarcating the record’s potent emotional landscape. On “Real House,” Hakim’s piano meanders through a series of questioning, jazzy chords, while Lenker recounts what sound like pivotal moments from her childhood story. Given the scene-setting opening of the song, where the incidental sounds of the players settling into the session lend a feeling of ease and spontaneity, it’s unsettling to then witness a childhood story so vivid and stark: “When I was seven I saw the first film that made me scared / And I thought of this whole world ending / I thought of dying unprepared.” Though the wordplay on “Evol” is certainly clever, contrasting pairs of words running forwards and backwards, it’s the aching sway of the song’s delicate melody that’s especially moving. “Ruined” is similarly potent, shimmering with ghostly textures, sufficient to distract the listener from a rare lyrical clanger: “You just gave me an amethyst from your jeweled vest as you cried.”

Elsewhere the tone shifts wildly, from the swaying Dylan-inspired country-folk of “Sadness As A Gift,” featuring lovely vocal harmonies from Davison, via the breakneck guitar patterns of “Fool,” to the jaunty banjo of “Already Lost.” A rather odd inclusion is an acoustic rendition of “Vampire Empire,” which Big Thief released as a single last year. While Lenker included a couple of songs on abysskiss that were later reworked as full-band songs on the masterful U.F.O.F. (“Terminal Paradise” and “From”), here the acoustic version sounds like a step backward and doesn’t feel like it belongs, especially given this album’s 45-minute runtime. Nonetheless, there’s plenty of gorgeous material here, offering further evidence of Lenker’s subtle and surprising songwriting.

Tim Clarke

Depraved NYC Rockers MICK’S JAGUAR Turn Loose “Georgian Pine”

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~

By Billy Goate

Sometimes you're just in the mood for an old fashioned, beer drinking, bottle breaking rock 'n' roll good time and MICK'S JAGUAR surely delivers. Their new record holds nothing back lyrically, with titles like "Speed Dealer," "Molotov Children," "Nothing to Lose," and "Free On The Street" (which I've been singing a lot lately). Then there's the band's three guitar attack! Musically, 'Salvation' (2022) is a rousing, fist-raising, fire-starting nightbreed that scratches all the right itches for me.

Today, Doomed & Stoned is bringing you an advance listen to its closing track, "Georgian Pine," which vocalist/guitarist Grace Hollaener tells us "is inspired by Matthew McConaughey's performance as Moondog in Harmony Korine's masterpiece The Beach Bum. It's an anthem for the apathetic resistance (see trend of 'quiet quitting') to the horrors of proto-fascism, climate change, and late capitalism that plague our modern condition. It's also a cracker jack little ditty about getting high and eating fast food."

"We always like to throw a curveball with the album closer," says singer John Martin. "So, when Grace took over lead vocals for this pop banger sans guitar solo, we figured it is the perfect way to find 'Salvation' after the nine pissed off tracks that came before. It's the sun coming up after a blackout night at the bar. Maybe things will be okay after all."

If you're ready to "turn on, tune in, drop out" when you read the day's headlines, "Georgian Pine" may be just the medicine for you.

Mick’s Jaguar will be releasing Salvation on December 2nd via Tee Pee Records/Totem Cat Records (pre-order here). Stick it on a playlist with Thin Lizzy, Kiss, Sex Pistols, Mudhoney, and The Shrine.

Give ear...

LISTEN: Mick's Jaguar - "Georgian Pine"

SOME BUZZ

Born in the wild, alive to stalk death, and destined to make righteous noise via the annihilation of shit rock, Mick's Jaguar is a force to reckon with.

Formed in Brooklyn many moons ago, as a one-off Stones’ covers band for an impromptu New Year’s Eve party, at its core, the NYC collective is the bastard son of an unholy union between Judas Priest and Guns N' Roses.

Their debut album – 2018’s 'Fame and Fortune' – received praise from both American and European press alike, with Classic Rock Magazine noting that the only way to describe their sound is, "If Ace Frehley was in Thin Lizzy and it was the summer of 1977...and they were all really into the Sex Pistols...and AC/DC."

Since 2018, the band has toured nationwide, making appearances at the inaugural Psycho Smokeout in Los Angeles and Desertfest New York, as well as opening for legendary punk and hard rock acts like Airborne, The Adicts, and Turbonegro’s late/great Hank von Hell.

After losing their original bassist amidst the dense jungle boughs of Thailand, Mick’s Jaguar have since enlisted close friends Jack Ridley (Drowners) and Aaron Roche (Wye Oak, Anhoni, Tōth) to record another round of ten, bar fighting rock tracks at Brooklyn’s Figure 8 Recording with engineer Philip Weinrobe (Adrianne Lenker, Alanis Morissette). The result? Their killer new record, Salvation, which once again finds the band living too late, bound for hell and quite possibly, the last great rock and roll band on the planet.

“Like every band says at every show these days, it feels incredible to be back,” says vocalist John Martin. “But after the last three years of bullshit, this is the music you need to hear. Having both Tee Pee and Totem Cat in our corner is huge too. We're stoked to see there's a new wave of bands coming up that are making music for rock fans like us.”

'Salvation' by Mick’s Jaguar is released 2nd December on Tee Pee Records/Totem Cat Records.

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(▶︎ Meeting with a Judas Tree | Duval Timothyから)

Meeting with a Judas Tree by Duval Timothy

Recorded 2019 - 2022 Primarily recorded at my home studio in South London, Carrying Colour studio in Freetown, my old studio in Rotherhithe Old Police Station, and Casa Mahler in Spoleto. Recorded on different pianos, including an upright in Freetown that had lost the felt of its hammers due to the humidity creating a harpsichord-like sound as the raw wood struck the strings. Other prominent instruments featured are Moog Grandmother, double bass, electric guitar and Juno-G. Part of the piano recordings on 'Up' and 'Drift' were composed and recorded through April 2021, whilst I was an artist in residence at the Mahler & LeWitt Studios, Spoleto, for the 'Mahler, The Song of the Earth' project in partnership with Mahler Foundation. During the residency, I was studying and creating work in response to the life and work of Gustav Mahler, in particular 'Das Lied Von Der Erde' (The Song of the Earth) — a vast song cycle engaging with nature, forgiveness, friendship, and mortality themes. While making this record, I wanted to explore what the natural environment means personally. I went on many trips into nature to engage with plant life and natural materials. These included everyday strolls around South London, walks with my mum in the hills surrounding Bath (Up), hikes through Freetown, the hills of Spoleto, up line in Ghana and nature sanctuaries in Sierra Leone (Wood). I found incredible examples of nature in all of these contexts, which I felt personally close to. I made field recordings with my phone or Zoom recorder, documenting various birds, insects, monkeys, bats, plants, trees, stones and so on, which are all on the record. クレジット2022年11月11日リリース All music by Duval Timothy Produced by Duval Timothy Additional piano & synth on Wood ft. Yu Su by Yu Su Additional guitar by on Wood by Kiran Kai Co-writing on Wood by Yu Su and Thunder by Fauzia Additional production on Up by Vegyn with voice field recording by Erica Timothy Live effects on Thunder ft. FAUZIA by FAUZIA Additional production on Drift ft. Lamin Fofana by Lamin Fofana Mixed by Philip Weinrobe at Sugar Mountain Mixed for Dolby Atmos by Brian Bender at The Motherbrain Mastered by Josh Bonati Carrying Colour Records 2022 Published by Decca Publishing, a division of Universal Music Group Ltd.

Video Premiere: Fellow Pynins “Silver Dagger”

Video Premiere: Fellow Pynins “Silver Dagger” @danielksherrill @ithinkimphil @taylor12k @Fellow_Pynins @iangerogeexploratorium @row_boat_music #folkmusic #folk #music #singersongwriter #musician #guitar #countrymusic #acousticguitar #americana

Fellow Pynins – “Silver Dagger” Americana Highways is hosting this premiere of Fellow Pynins’ version of the traditional song “Silver Dagger” from their forthcoming album Lady Mondegreen.  Lady Mondegreen was produced by the Fellow Pynins, mixed by Philip Weinrobe and mastered by Taylor Deupree of 12k Mastering.  The album will be available on May 20. Musicians playing on the song are Dani Aubert…

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Adrianne Lenker - Zombie Girl (Songs And Instrumentals, 2020) 

Official Video / https://www.adriannelenker.com

Stream and buy here

what a dream that was i almost couldn’t wake because i was frozen in bed with a zombie girl vacant as a closed-down fair

sleep paralysis, sworn i could’ve felt you there and i almost could’ve kissed your hair but the emptiness withdrew me from any kind of wishful prayer

oh, emptiness tell me ‘bout your nature maybe i've been getting you wrong i cover you with questions cover you with explanations cover you with music

then the next night dreaming i could feel your skin but the dream escaped so easily and i woke up to the road again

how your words ring through something kind of sweet and blue and i knew that you’d been understanding everything that i'd said too

about emptiness tell me about your nature maybe i've been getting you wrong i cover you with questions cover you with explanations cover you with music

what’s on your mind, what’s on your mind?

Video: Tomberlin - “tap”

i don’t know who needs to hear this..., the sophomore follow-up to Tomberlin’s excellent 2018 listmaking debut At Weddings and 2020′s listmaking EP Projections, is still over a month and a half away from its arrival, but the anticipation softly builds with each subsequent single. Atop of early listens in the contemplative “idknwntht” and the socially tussled “happy accident” comes its latest preview “tap”.

In spirt, the listen shares a kinship with the sound of At Weddings in the way its flickering acoustics sway between the trees in the breeze, though richer instrumental arrangements (provided by Told Slant’s Felix Walworth on drums, Kenny Wollesen on percussion, Shahzad Ismaily on percussion, una corda, and electric bass, Gyða Valtýsdóttir on cello, and Marvy Ayy on electronic hi-hat) and lark sounds bring us deeper into Sarah Beth Tomberlin’s world where she connects with herself through observations of the world moving around her at her own inverted distance.

“I’m not a tree / I’m in a forest of buildings / I’m not a singer / I’m just someone / Who’s guilty / Remind me that I don’t have to be anything.” And yet, songwriting like this will mean the world to someone listening. Hear it belong alongside a visual gestation of the recording process captured on camcorder by Philip Weinrobe...

Tomberlin’s i don’t know who needs to hear this… will be released April 29th on Saddle Creek.

Tomberlin announces her new album, i don’t know who needs to hear this…, out April 29 via Saddle Creek. To mark the occasion she has shared a video for the album’s lead single ‘happy accident.’

“‘happy accident’ is a song about relational obscurity. Trying to sort out who you are or who you were to someone,” says Sarah Beth Tomberlin of the song. “Is this relationship romantic or is it just sex? Do you want to spend time with me or are you just bored? Do I make my own decisions that are good for me or are my decisions predominantly based on what I think you might want or need? I was kind of walking through moments in previous relationships in my life. I wanna know why someone wants to get to know me. Do you want to know me or just your idea of me? Do I want to know you or just my idea of you?”

The song features Cass McCombs on guitar, Felix Walworth on drums and Philip Weinrobe, who also co-produced the album, on bass.

i don't know who needs to hear this...:

01. easy 02. born again runner 03. tap 04. memory 05. unsaid 06. sunstruck 07. collect caller 08. stoned 09. happy accident 10. possessed 11. idkwntht

Photo credit: Michelle Yoon

Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker Confirms Two New Albums

Her new song ‘anything’ is online now…Big Thief singer Adrianne Lenker has shared details of two new studio albums. The American artist made good use of her quarantine time, heading to a cabin with engineer Philip Weinrobe. With the pandemic cutting short Big Thief’s touring activities, she was left largely alone to focus on solo material. She comments: “I grew really connected to the space itself… The one room cabin felt like the inside of an acoustic guitar – it was such a joy to hear the notes reverberate in the space.” The two albums are titled ‘songs’ and ‘instrumentals’ respectively and land on October 23rd via 4AD. Adrianne explains… I had a handful of songs that I was planning on recording, but by the time Phil arrived I was on a whole new level of heartsick and the songs were flying through my ears. I was basically lying in the dirt half the time. We went with the flow. A lot of the focus was on getting nourishment from our meals. We cooked directly on the woodstove, and we went on walks to the creek every day to bathe. I’m grateful that this music has come into existence. These songs have helped me heal. I hope that at least in some small way this music can be a friend to you. New song ‘anything’ is out now – tune in below.

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You know when you hear something and you just perk up and have to stop what you’re doing entirely to fully engage with it and then subsequently get really excited as hell about it?? That was my experience with Brooklyn-based three-piece Really Big Pinecone and their not-quite-an-LP but also not-quite-an-EP What I Said About the Pinecone (originally released on vinyl and digitally through Babe City Records). So, we’re very excited to announce that we’ll be releasing the album as part of our cassette series later this spring.

Guitarist Mikey Buishas describes the band’s sound as, “sort of messy, but playful, abstract, as well as earnest and joyful” which I feel is pretty spot on. There’s a quirky pop sensibility the group invokes that, in a different time and place, would have seen them fitting in with Elephant Six Collective acts like Elf Power, The Apples In Stereo or Beulah. There’s also a quiet confidence in their execution of more intricate parts that is reminiscent of more contemporary peers like Palm, Ava Luna or Forth Wanderers.

What I Said About The Pinecone captures the wonder, fear and uninhabited creativity over the course of an eventful 14 minutes, seven songs. This album—recorded by Philip Weinrobe (Marc Ribot, Pussy Riot, Damien Rice) at Figure 8 Recording (Palm, Owen Pallet, Here We Go Magic, Son Lux, The Julie Ruin)—as well as their previous release, Really Really Big Pinecone—recorded at The Silent Barn—is as mysterious yet self-aware as the band name suggests. All you can do, fair listener, is join on the ride.

The three-piece lineup has cracked the code to creativity: leaving the comfort zone. W.I.S.A.T.P. features Zannie Owens on bass (“but her main instrument is guitar”), Greg Albert (“but his main instrument is bass”), and Mikey Buishas (“but honestly [doesn’t] know too much about guitar”). As musicians, they’re less interested in proficiency as they are in composition. The idiosyncratic seven tracks of W.I.S.A.T.P. flow in a distinct manner, like the band is both restless and perfectly at ease. And like all of the best gifts, W.I.S.A.T.P. keeps on giving, rewarding repeat listens with experience points like a musical RPG.

Nearly all the songs on their cassette release, Really Really Big Pinecone, are under three minutes, but they pack miniature worlds into each. -Rolling Stone

Listen:

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Thanks for listening!!

(▶︎ Seventh-Day Adventist Surf Report Machine | Aaron Rocheから)

Seventh-Day Adventist Surf Report Machine by Aaron Roche

in the summer of 2020 i was living at home with my parents in a suburb of Orlando around that time i found myself nurturing a deep friendship with my buddy philip weinrobe, a friendship which i’m happy to say continues to grow. having been inspired by working with him on his album Good Grief i found myself, after a number of years, wanting to record a new collection of songs. i asked my pal chris p. thompson to send me some daily surf reports that he found interesting. i set those words to music on a borrowed acoustic guitar, writing and recording most often early in the morning. Then, as would be my practice for a number of months, I’d wander out alone making my way in an old toyota truck all across the coasts and interiors of florida all the while letting my mind wander off to places far away. Anyways, Nicaragua, Japan, Hawaii. All over really. Nameless constantly shifting shelves of sand heaving clear hollow barrels into the night to nobody. You ever hear those sounds? Well anyhow, at some point i wrote a couple of other tunes inspired by a zoom powerpoint presentation i participated in with some friends online. we said it was for educational enrichment but really it was highly competitive. adam and kate were the clear winners. So anyways then doug wieselman arranged some things, so did paul wiancko. I imagine him in a tuxedo. philip played a drum machine and then mixed and mastered the whole thing in a couple of hours. I imagine he did that in his baseball cap. If something sounds beautiful on this record, my ears owe that to those dudes. A number of months later I found myself reluctantly at an artist residency in New Orleans. Somehow I knew I was coming back to New York but needed to ease my way back into the swing of things and New Orleans seemed like a place that knew about swings. Once there tho I didn’t know what to do with my time. Luckily my friend grey gersten thought it would be a good idea to cover a Bob Dylan song so I did that and it seemed to fit in nicely with the other tunes. It’s still unclear to me how cohesive this work is or even if I mean for it to be taken that seriously, but I am happy it exists and I’m happy to share it with whoever wants to listen. To me it represents a time in my life when things were, for a moment, simple and unadorned. Unworried with the weight of age, or occupation, or relationships. It was and continues to be, to me, a celebration of being with ones own self, considering the weather and then getting out into it. You stare disasters squarely in the eye, and then you dance directly into their paths. Bop and weave, bop and weave. Both land and sea seem to require this of me from time to time. I’m not afraid of you. I am made by you and for you. Funtime クレジット2022年9月30日リリース All songs written and performed by aaron roche except Shooting Start written by bob dylan .. Mixed and Mastered by philip weinrobe .. Strings Written and Arranged by paul wiancko Banjo, Fingercymbals, and Drum by doug wieselman Drum Machines by philip weinrobe .. artwork by aaron roche

Adrianne Lenker — Songs and Instrumentals (4AD)

Photo by Genesis Báez

songs by Adrianne Lenker

Some musicians have the air of a mystic or seer, so unflinchingly committed to their craft that it’s a touch scary. Allergic to the superficial flash of the music business, they make music compulsively, instinctively. Adrianne Lenker seems to possess such drive, whether solo or with her band, Big Thief. When her songs are grounded in Big Thief’s folk-rock format of vocals, guitars, bass and drums, there’s an exquisite tension between Lenker’s questing impulses and her band’s grounded, loose-yet-tight playing. Solo, Lenker’s songs are groundless, reaching out into an eerie, affecting space that brings to mind the haunted folk of the late Nick Drake. Lenker’s fingerpicked acoustic guitar playing certainly has Drake’s agility and subtle power, her instrument’s voicings evasive yet articulate, her words alluding to experiences too confronting to address in any other way.

Following last year’s Big Thief albums U.F.O.F. and Two Hands, Songs and Instrumentals are also sister albums. They were recorded direct to tape by engineer Philip Weinrobe in a secluded cabin in Massachusetts after Big Thief’s European tour was cut short by the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020. Lenker has rarely sounded quite so haunted as she does here, rendering images with a knife-edge clarity that cuts through in flashes. “Everything eats / And is eaten / Time is fed” runs a koan-like fragment from “Ingydar.” “Come help me die, my daughter … Take my life into your life,” she breathes on the tragic “Come,” rain limply pattering in the background. Much of Songs feels like facing the harsh reality of life and grudgingly accepting its unforgiving nature. There are glimpses of hope on gorgeous opener “Two Reverse” and singles “Anything” and “Dragon Eyes,” which seem to promise solace, plus there are subtle percussive details and incidental snatches of birdsong that make the songs feel less stark. However, for the most part this is a sobering, shivering listen. When the tape cuts out abruptly at the end of closing song “My Angel,” the spell is so harshly broken that it’s gutting. Yet, as an ending to this album it feels apt. 

Making the transition from Songs into Instrumentals is more of a listening challenge than one might imagine. While both albums are populated by the same radiant guitar tone, the playing on Instrumentals is much more exploratory and tentative, dotted with hesitations, pinging harmonics, string buzz and misarticulated notes — unsurprising given they’re improvisations. Though there are some lovely stretches across this second disc, including some melodic phrases recognizable from Songs, I have two reservations. Firstly, anyone with an aversion to the sound of wind chimes is likely to be put off, as they make a frequent appearance in the background, and also to segue between passages. (As someone who’s had neighbors with the damn things, I can’t hear them without being triggered.) Secondly, I’m not convinced that the different sections of these two side-long pieces have been put together in a particularly flowing manner. Then again, the all-analog recording process probably made assembling a coherent collage quite a challenge. Though it’s exciting to hear Lenker exploring the joys of improvising on her instrument, untethered by the songwriting process, as a listening experience it’s a little frustrating. 

Towards the end of “Music for Indigo,” during a break in her playing, Lenker is overheard saying, “I’m starting over.” It’s addressed, perhaps, to her engineer. It might be an assertion of independence directed at her ex-partner, Indigo Sparke. Or perhaps she’s just talking to herself. Wherever she ventures next, it’s exciting to follow an artist unafraid of laying everything on the line.

Tim Clarke

Video: Adrianne Lenker - “zombie girl”

With the release of her new doubling of solo albums today with signs and instrumentals, Big Thief frontwoman Adrianne Lenker has once again captivated a wider audience with her idiosyncratic folkwork and songwriting that draws in unassuming magical moments through specificity. “zombie girl”, the album opener to signs, is the perfect way for Lenker to let us into her next chapter, as the listen opens through a field recording of Western Mass wildlife and hearing the tape recorder button being pushed.

From there, it’s as if Lenker takes us to a place beyond that which we see as the evident physical -- where music reveals her self through it. Tell me about your nature / Maybe I’ve been getting you wrong,” she voice webs in intricate spirals across the fretboard. “I cover you with question / I cover you with explanation / I cover you with music / What’s on your mind?” she asks. It’s a wonder, indeed, that we get to see through her sound.

Lenker filmed the listen’s accompanying visuals along with Philip Weinrobe, which you can watch below...

Adrianne Lenker’s songs and instrumentals is available now on 4AD.