We are back! Last week we did a show but we never got to the show notes. These are the notes from last Thursday’s show – a little late, sorry – here goes!
Episode 22
Real Sickies – Destructive Nights
Mungos Hi Fi/Marina P – Divorce A L’Italienne
Los Poetas – Siembra Cultiva Cosecha
Low – More
Touché Amoré – Lament
Big Red Machine – Latter Days
Liam Corcoran – Tick Toc
Kurt Vile – Run Run Run
Lorde – Stoned at the Nail Station
Real Sickies – Destructive Nights
After 2020’s Quarantined, love is what the world needs now, and the Real Sickies’ take on it was worth the wait.
Officially released last Friday, Love Is For Lovers is a fast-paced, 14-track concept album of the band’s insights, anecdotes, musings and messages exploring our most complicated of emotions.
The band has plenty of experience with relationships in many different forms. Since its 2014 inception, new members have appeared on every album — this being the fourth, full-length on vinyl, and the second release with Montreal’s Stomp Records, a discography bolstered through the years by digital drops and EPs. Being a long time coming, this album encompasses all the Sickies through the years, active or not.
Endlessly creative, Crossman has conceived some of the most fantastic videos on a budget, collecting various props through the years and applying a lot of imagination and elbow grease. While the video for the title track is being released today, another for Communication Breakdown, the album’s self-explanatory opening track, came out last month and had the band at an air hanger where a frazzled controller sends the plane’s crew through wild scenes in time.
Real Sickies – a fun video
Mungos Hi Fi/Marina P – Divorce A L’Italienne
Mungo’s Hi Fi is Glasgow’s biggest reggae sound system and named after the city’s patron saint. You may not be expecting such a thing in the rainswept streets of Scotland’s biggest city, but since 2001 Mungo’s Hi Fi has been producing reggae music, putting out over 90 releases on its own Scotch Bonnet record label, building a sound system and running numerous club nights. They have collaborated with some of reggae’s biggest vocalists, including Sugar Minott and Cornell Campbell, as well as current voices such as Soom T, Eva Lazarus, and Charlie P. This latest release from September 2020 brings to the mic Italian vocalist and songwriter Marina P.
Siembra Cultiva Cosecha – Los Poetas
From Los Poetas website https://www.wearelospoetas.com/
I heard this track on Frequencies and I just had to add it here. This screenshot from their website says it all.
With members hailing from El Salvador, Chile, Argentina, Panama and Colombia, via Canada, Latin Hip Hop collective Los Poetas sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard before.
“Listen to the poets,” says Che. “There’s power in the word.”
Low – More
Low is an American indie rock band from Minnesota, formed in 1993. The group is mainly the husband/wife duo Alan Sparhawk (guitar and vocals) and Mimi Parker (drums and vocals). The music of Low is characterized by slow tempos and minimalist arrangements. Descriptions sometimes referred to it as a rock subgenre called “slowcore” This new track from the lp, Hey What is quite a departure from the slowcore description. Pitchfork has an excellent article about the band’s new record
Touché Amoré – Lament
From Pitchfork Best New Music
On their phenomenal fifth album, the post-hardcore band work with famed producer Ross Robinson and come away with their most affecting and resonant music yet.
It’s a long overdue revelation that he alone can’t be there for everyone at all times, which makes Lament their capstone—a Touché Amoré album that can reach the most people as possible from the greatest distance.
From Pitchfork
Soft guitar chords ripple with tremolo then vanish. Weeping pedal steel wafts upward over distant acoustic strums. “It’s that special kind of quiet where one might be concerned,” sings Jeremy Bolm in a softened version of his blunt, frantic bark. “But even with this silence, my voice can be misheard.”
From Sterogum (yes, the barking vocals are stunning!)
Big Red Machine – Latter Days
Big Red Machine is a that began as a collaboration between musicians Aaron Dessner and Justin Vernon. The band is named after the nickname for the Cincinnati Reds baseball teams which won the 1976 World Series.
This song is from second record, “How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?” The album is a collaborative effort, featuring guest vocals from Taylor Swift, Fleet Foxes, Ilsey, Sharon Van Etten, and others. “Latter Days” featuring American singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell and is the first single from the album, Dessner stated, “It was clear to Anaïs that the early sketch Justin and I made of ‘Latter Days’ was about childhood, or loss of innocence and nostalgia for a time before you’ve grown into adulthood — before you’ve hurt people or lost people and made mistakes. She defined the whole record when she sang that, as these same themes kept appearing again and again.”
Liam Corcoran – Tic Toc
Album Nevahland 2017
Earnestness is still en vogue; character-driven lyrics are cutting edge; and the ’80s never ended.
That’s the vibe you’re left with listening to NEVAHLAND, the debut solo LP by Liam Corcoran of Two Hours Traffic. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the throwback quality that the Charlottetown indie rocker instils NEVAHLAND with.
Kurt Vile – Run Run Run
Kurt Vile is an American performer from Pennsylvania. He is known for his solo work and as the former lead guitarist of rock band The War on Drugs. Both in the studio and during live performances, Vile is accompanied by his backing band, The Violators. Vile is one of the many artists featured on the upcoming Velvet Underground and Nico tribute album.
Former SNL music director Hal Wilner who is responsible for producing many memorable tribute albums, died of COVID before the album’s release.
Look for a the highly anticipated documentary on the Velvet Underground in the fall.
It’s directed by Todd Haynes known for the feature films such as “Carol”, “Far From Heaven” and “Dark Waters”
Lorde – Stoned at the Nail Station
Album Solar POwer 2021
There is a great article on Lorde in the latest Exclaim! magazine – you can read it here
here is a bit of the article
Lorde would rather be outside, basking in the sun. Instead, she is speaking to Exclaim! on a video call from a New York hotel room, where she is doing press for her upcoming third album, Solar Power.
“I felt very centred [and] grounded in nature,” she says of her latest work. “That feeling was a very calm one, and also one of joy. It felt almost like sun-worship that was happening. It’s kind of an emotional album.”
It’s a new perspective for the singer, born Ella Yelich-O’Connor in New Zealand. At 16, she became one of the biggest pop stars in the world with 2013’s Pure Heroine and its chart-topping single “Royals,” which captured moody adolescence and gave teens a new lens through which to experience youth. At 20, she distilled love and heartbreak with 2017’s Melodrama, its booming drums and powerful synths feeling like a never-ending night at a house party.
Much of Solar Power feels experimental. She worked with co-writer and producer Jack Antonoff to create what she calls the album’s “nutty” sound. “[Solar Power] sounds crazy,” she enthuses. “There’s heaps of crazy vocals and live drums. There’s guitars on this album — like, 16-year-old me was not letting a guitar anywhere near anything,” she says. Multiple tracks also feature cicada sounds.
Last week’s show
Whole-Hearted 