Hello, it's Tuesday, and I've put together another little breakdown of videos that came out over the past week, and a few cuts off forthcoming LPs, plus a condensed peek at what's coming up this Fri., Aug 7, with links to full album streams included...
Mac Demarco, "No Other Heart"
Can we all just agree that Mac Demarco is the shit? I mean, dude just seems so cavalier and writes such great jangly, rambling weirdo rock songs that have a Ween off-kilter appeal and light John Lennon/Harry Nilsson quality, but stamped with Demarco's own goofy, amusing Canadian-ness. He's cited Shuggie Otis among his influences, too, which I can totally get behind. He told NPR that all the songs on his mini-LP, Another One, are about love; they were written within a week of the tracks on Salad Days, and from what I've heard so far, they carry the same breeziness. He explains each track on NPR here. Listen to the warm grooving "No Other Heart" below.
Will Mason Ensemble, "Door 6"
Not to be confused with alt folk-blues singer-songwriter Willy Mason (whom I thought it was upon first glancing at the press release), Will Mason is a 26-year-old composer/drummer and doctorate-seeking student at Columbia University who wrote his debut album, Beams Of The Huge Night (out August 28 on New Amsterdam Records) in a one-room cabin by a lake in rural Maine, with no running water, electricity, internet, or phone service. "The place where music is made really matters - you can hear it in what results," Mason said. Over six tracks and 70 minutes, he captures the feeling of isolation in a place "that can inspire awe just as easily as unease" with post-jazz wanderings that are lush or sparse, incorporating much improvisation by a band comprised of a female vocalist and musicians on oboe, alto saxophone, guitars, upright bass, and drums (Mason). "Door 6" has a rather ominous feel, fast and urgent and jittery like it could go off the rails at any moment.
https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3387590712/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=1258817377/transparent=true/ Chelsea Wolfe, "Grey Days"
I got to see Chelsea Wolfe open for Queens of the Stone Age last year. She plies a dark, dramatic blend of industrial shoegaze, hard-driving gothic-tronic rock, and ominous sludgy stoner noise that balances well with her dulcet, high-toned vocals — like drops of bright ethereal melody or eerie echoes against the instrumental washes. On fifth and latest full-length, Abyss (out this Friday via Sargent House) longtime multi-instrumentalist/co-writer Ben Chisholm and drummer Dylan Fujioka are joined by Ezra Buchla (viola) and Russian Circles' Mike Sullivan (guitar) to add further intensity and austere chamber feel to her sound. Abyss touches on themes of sleep paralysis, the unconscious and subconscious, failure, destruction, intimacy, anxiety, longing and more. "Grey Days" below; full album stream here.
Unknown Mortal Orchestra, "Ur Life One Night"
The third album from Oregon's trippy retro-hued lo-fi rockersm, Multi-Love, is already out. If you haven't listened to it yet, get on that, stat. As motivation, check out the video for gooey grooving "Ur Life One Night" below. A statement from director Manoj Leonel Jahson: "When we first spoke with UMO, the idea of creating something abstract yet fun, for their single 'Ur Life, One Night' sounded very exciting. I am deeply inspired by the quirky Indian magical-realism from our mythology and wanted to create something rooted but still visually appealing. The music lent a dream-like quality and the lyric pushed us to the motif of the Goddess being pursued, yet always being out of reach.The visual language naturally led to borrowing heavily from Traditional Asian Art including miniature paintings from the Mughal period to create multiple dreams-capes and ended up being a sexually charged riot with a fair dose of humor and symbolism.''
ALBUMS OUT THIS FRIDAY, AUGUST 7
AC Slater, Take The Night EP
ATTLAS, Scene EP
Luke Bryan, Kill The Lights
Cattle Decapitation, The Anthropocene Extinction
Mac DeMarco, Another One [Full Album Stream]
Deaf Wish, Pain [Full Album Stream]
Don Broco, Automatic
Enabler, Fail To Feel Safe
Gangrene, You Disgust Me [Alchemist and Oh No]
HEALTH, Death Magic [Full Album Stream]
Heathered Pearls, Body Complex
InAeona, Force Rise the Sun
La Luz, Weirdo Shrine [Full Album Stream]
Craig Marshall, After All
The Mynabirds, Lovers Know
Miss May I, Deathless
Mourning Coup, Baby Blue
Murder F.M., Happily Never After
Never Shout Never, Black Cat
Night Beds, Ivywild [Full Album Stream]
Tunde Olaniran, Transgressor
Pavement, The Secret History, Vol. 1 [Actual release date August 11. Full Album Stream.]
Joe Plummer, Built In Sun
Public Enemy, Man Plans God Laughs
Adrien Reju, Strange Love and the Secret Language
Robyn & La Bagatelle Magique, Love Is Free
Small Feet, From Far Enough Away Everything Sounds Like the Ocean
Sweat Lodge, Talismana
Frank Turner, Positive Songs for Negative People
Slim Twig, Thank You For Stickin' With Twig
Sharkmuffin, Chartreuse
Teen Daze, Morning World
Telepathe, Destroyer
Ultimate Painting, Green Lanes
Chelsea Wolfe, Abyss
Worriers, Imaginary Life [Full Album Stream]
