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thekillerssluts · 2 years

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How Arcade Fire Found a Way Back

After a meteoric rise that built a passionate fan base, the band had trouble connecting on its last album. A new release, “We,” links the group’s past to its hopes for the future.

There are a few indicators that Win Butler, the singer and guitarist who fronts the rock band Arcade Fire, might be a professional somebody: the flat-brimmed, cream-billed bolero hat atop his head or the shock of slicked-back, bleached blond hair that materializes when he takes it off. He’s also exceptionally tall, a trait that helped him to win MVP at the 2016 NBA All-Star Celebrity Game over Jason Sudeikis and Nick Cannon.

On a warm day in March, Butler and his wife, the singer and multi-instrumentalist Régine Chassagne, were walking through Times Square when Butler was conscripted into a tourist-trap performance where someone would vault over a group of men. It was safe to say that Butler was the only participant who’d once accepted a Grammy for album of the year.

In the end, the performers chose to leap over someone else. “Discrimination against tall people is real,” he noted with humor returning to Chassagne, who’d pressed a wad of bills into a collection hat.

This trip represented a musical homecoming, of sorts. The night before, Butler, Chassagne and Arcade Fire, a band that has headlined to more than 100,000 at Glastonbury, performed at Manhattan’s 600-capacity Bowery Ballroom for the first time since 2004. David Bowie and David Byrne attended that performance 18 years ago, and the joint patronage of two art-rock legends helped anoint the band as The Next Big Thing.

“Right out of the gate, it was like, ‘I think our lives might be a bit different,’” Butler recalled.

What followed was one of the sharpest ascents in recent rock history. Arcade Fire’s debut, “Funeral,” became the fastest-selling record in the history of its indie label, Merge. Its 2010 LP, “The Suburbs,” debuted at No. 1 and was the surprise album of the year winner, beating out Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Eminem.

The group’s music has combined delicate interiority with expansive Springsteen-esque rock ’n’ roll, and pulled from classical, disco, chamber music and Haitian rara. Onstage, where the large ensemble’s ecstatic performances could resemble a tent revival, it has sounded like a shuffling street band, a tight rhythm machine and a superstar rock unit capable of filling out a football stadium.

But when “Everything Now” arrived in 2017, an LP that hybridized the band’s dance and rock sounds, something shifted. The record was accompanied by a trollish press campaign where the band created several websites that intentionally spread false information about its activity, as a sort of commentary on the nascent “fake news” era. This did not go over well. For whatever reason — the darker political climate, the quality of the record itself — “Everything Now” was a commercial and critical misfire.

“We,” the group’s sixth album, due May 6, is a reset. The lead single “The Lightning I & II” returns to soaring, big-sky rock, and the existential concerns threaded through the band’s career. (“I heard the thunder and I thought it was the answer,” Butler sings. “But I find I got the question wrong.”) “Age of Anxiety I” and “Age of Anxiety II (Rabbit Hole)” start as solemn, piano-driven ballads before slowly building toward explosive, rhythmic release. Other songs veer into stripped-down, singer-songwriter territory: “End of Empire I-IV” is a multipart epic about life during American decline, while “Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)” wouldn’t sound out of place at a campfire singalong.

“I look at Paul Simon, and look at the breadth between ‘Graceland’ and what he was doing with Simon & Garfunkel — to think that’s the same person who made that music, that’s extremely inspiring,” Butler said. “I was always more interested in seeing if there’s a way to do whatever you want, musically, and still have it feel like the band.”

As the group performed some of those tracks at the Bowery — and led elated fans on a mini-march into a nearby subway station — the new songs bled seamlessly together with older favorites like “Rebellion (Lies)” and “Ready to Start.” But the band that made “We” has undergone significant changes.

“It’s a less physically unified life than it was once upon a time, which you can look at however you want to,” Richard Reed Parry, one of the band’s multi-instrumentalists, said in a video interview, with a knowing chuckle. “Very, very different life these days.”

“I’ve come to believe that music is literally a spirit,” Butler said. “Not figuratively. There’s something that gets inside you, and it can get passed on to different people.”

For more than 20 years, Arcade Fire has thought deeply about the forces, spiritual and otherwise, that connect people. On some level, its music wagers, all of us feel that society is stupefying, and modernity is terrifying. Only by acknowledging this can we be liberated from the paralysis that accompanies adulthood, and recapture our uncontaminated appreciation of the world.

“The music is good, but I think it’s also about what they represent,” David Byrne said in a video interview. “They don’t seem too slick; they take the slightly chaotic aspect of their shows as a virtue. I think people appreciate that they’re not getting a super-duper polished pop product — it feels like this is something they really believe in.”

In the band’s early years, the band gained and shed members, settling into a lineup that included the multi-instrumentalist Parry, the bassist Tim Kingsbury, and Butler’s brother, Will, on various keys, strings and football helmets; the drummer Jeremy Gara began as a tour manager, and joined full-time in 2004. They remained remarkably self-contained, and resistant to the external pressures of rapid success.

“When things blow up, the sharks come around,” Chassagne said with a laugh. “We know what we want to do, and so you don’t get impressed by checks and promises.” (Butler noted they “probably met about 20 people” who claimed to have signed Nirvana after “Funeral” blew up.)

After the 2013 album “Reflektor,” Butler and Chassagne relocated to New Orleans, where they’d fallen in love with the local culture (as well as its relative proximity to Haiti, where Chassagne’s family originates), while the rest of the band remained in Montreal. The backlash to its follow-up, “Everything Now,” didn’t prompt “massive internal change,” Parry said, but noted, “It was the first time we’d been outside of an arm’s length from each other, and that had much more of an impact on the band.”

Kingsbury agreed. “It coincided with the time in everyone’s life when we were in our mid-30s, and children were appearing,” he said in a video interview. (Butler, now 42, and Chassagne, 45, have a 9-year-old son.) As a result, he said, on the band’s most recent albums “there’s certain aspects that are less all of us and a little more of them.”

At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, border restrictions prevented the group from meeting in person, and working over Zoom proved fruitless. Butler said he and Chassagne challenged themselves to envision every song on “We” without production or drums, in case they were forced to make the album without the rest of the band. (Early on, Josh Tillman, who performs as Father John Misty, flew in from Los Angeles to act as a sounding board.) The band was subsequently able to convene in El Paso, Texas, in the fall of 2020, and again the following summer in Maine.

Butler and Chassagne are constantly working on new music. “Our process is just our life,” he said, noting that Chassagne doesn’t receive enough credit for the band’s output. “Régine has this magical ability to remember almost anything we’ve ever done. It’s always coexisting at the same time; some songs take 20 years to write, some songs take 20 minutes.” During our conversation, Butler spoke often about time, musing about what it takes for a restaurant to stay open for 100 years (“There’s something to be said for just executing something”), and lamenting the strict standards that new artists are judged by (“I hope there’s still a space in the world for a band to make a bunch of crappy records, and have their fifth record be genius”).

“The common path of almost every artist that I respect is very circuitous — it’s not a straight line, and there’s a lot of ups and downs,” he said in a separate video interview. “It takes 20 years to know if anything’s good or bad, anyway.”

Butler also resisted the idea that the reaction to “Everything Now” provoked any extended contemplation about the band’s identity. Still, “We” feels like a subtle recalibration that both revisits the past, and pushes forward. The band is “always mixing the old with the new,” Parry said. “Things kind of surface and resurface.” Parts of “The Lightning I and II” date back to the “Funeral” era. Chassagne said one movement of “End of Empire I-IV” was written when she and Butler first met in college; it’s immediately followed by something they wrote the week of recording. Parry said a lot of music was left on the cutting-room floor. “There were other records we were working on at the same time as this one that I would like to exist,” he noted.

For “We,” Arcade Fire brought in the British producer Nigel Godrich, who’s known most for his work with Radiohead. The title harkens back to Butler’s childhood memory of his grandmother reading him a book with “We” stamped on the cover. That book was Charles Lindbergh’s autobiography, but the name is more directly drawn from the Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin’s dystopian novel of the same name, which takes place in a future society that exists entirely under mass surveillance.

Butler said he made a physical mood board of inspirational material, and was drawn to both “dystopic images of a boot stepping on someone’s face, everyone in masks, really kind of anxiety, fever dream stuff” and “images of our son, family, old pictures of the band, and the piece of concrete outside of our old apartment in Montreal where we wrote our names in 2003.” (It’s still there, he proudly noted.)

“It took a while to understand why they were related to each other,” he said. “But we started to realize that it was more like the light and the shadow. It’s tempting to separate them, but they’re actually sort of the same thing.”

The first half of the record is shot through with dread about the modern age, with Butler lamenting the palliatives — television, medication, algorithmic-generated content — that don’t seem to make us any happier. But it gives way to a more tender perspective, with Butler and Chassagne singing directly about their son, Eddie (who’s credited with providing “whispers” on “End of Empire”), and the way that love forges meaningful kinship. Peter Gabriel sings on “Unconditional II (Race and Religion),” and they said it was gratifying to talk shop with another artist with the same dogged approach to pursuing music.

“It was so special to hear that because I was like …” Chassagne said, trailing off.

“ … we feel crazy sometimes,” Butler said, finishing the thought. “It’s nice to meet other people that know what we’re talking about.”

“We” signals a new era for Arcade Fire in some more formal ways. The day after the first of what turned into four Bowery shows, Will Butler announced he was leaving the band. “There was no acute reason beyond that I’ve changed — and the band has changed — over the last almost 20 years,” he said in a statement.

Kingsbury said, “He was just ready to take a break.” Parry added he was “devastated” by the move: “I think there’s just a lot of things that he has to do, while he’s still in the prime of his life, that are not being in a rock band on tour.” (Will Butler declined to comment.)

Arcade Fire’s membership has always expanded in a live setting, and with a tour tentatively scheduled for the fall, it has brought in Wolf Parade’s Dan Boeckner and the Haitian multi-instrumentalist Paul Beaubrun. “Even though they’re one of the biggest bands in the world, it always feels like we’re the underdog,” Beaubrun said. “We have to give it our all, all of the time. I’ve never felt that from anyone.”

The group’s ambitions still stretch beyond putting out more records. Chassagne cited her philanthropic work in Haiti as a major focal point of the next few years. Butler said he and Beaubrun are working on launching a digital label focused on importing Haitian artists. He brought up his grandfather Alvino, who continued playing music into his 90s. “The scope of his career, and those relationships, is so long. Even with my brother — if he hadn’t been in the band, we just have so many shared experiences that I’m really proud of.”

He wanted to stay present, he said, no matter what the future held. “This whole process of people judging a record, and is this good or is this bad — I don’t give a [expletive] about any of that,” he said. “I play music to stay alive.”

#Arcade Fire #interview #Win Butler #regine chassagne #Jeremy Gara #Tim Kingsbury #Richard Reed Parry #hq

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reckonslepoisson · 4 years

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Making a Door Less Open, Car Seat Headrest (2020)

It is in the very nature of Will Toledo as a songwriter and Car Seat Headrest as a band that their music interacts with listeners in a way that is individual and intimate. Few artists’ rampant emotional intelligence makes criticism sans personal pronouns quite as impossible as they do. Toledo’s music is affecting in a way that is easy to adore, it is worked through the very essence of him as an artist. Car Seat Headrest were perhaps the defining band of my past decade, dominant because they were -and still are- so firmly attuned to the foundations of my music obsession while also intent on progressing far beyond what had come to be expected of popular rock music.

Informed by great American indie rock acts from Dinosaur Jr. to Pavement to Modest Mouse, Toledo deconstructed and reworked the genre into something intriguing and replayable. As early as his first numbered Bandcamp records, he was committed to challenging indie rock norms, embarking on ambitious songwriting without ridiculous pretentiousness, isolating the genre’s tropes and creating powerful indie rock. His lyricism has been similarly invigorating, a blog-era emotionalist with thin veils between his art and personal narratives. Oft-humiliating and self-flagellating, Toledo managed to enshrine deep sincerity in power pop anthems, oddly apt for being yelled out, anthem-style, at his live shows.

Every aspect of Car Seat Headrest’s magic has beckoned fans to simultaneously study and revel in Toledo’s music. He is both a product of modern music consumption and also, almost single-handedly, responsible for reinvigorating indie rock in the 2010s.

Making a Door Less Open is the first batch of totally new Car Seat Headrest songs since 2016’s Teens of Denial. Despite records like How To Leave Town and Nervous Young Man similarly featuring significant synthesised instrumentation, Making a Door Less Open has been noted for being the first of Toledo’s electronica records on a major-label. It also includes appearances from Trait, a gasmask-wearing alter-ego and a Toledo side-project initially intended to separate his provocative experiments from his CSH fame. These are complications to Making a Door Less Open that have distracted the attention of many without necessarily having very much to do with what the album does and how it feels.

The inclusion of Trait appears to distance Toledo from his fame, the conflicts behind which are the album’s main theme. Fame, however, is just a theme. Making a Door Less Open is the first CSH record without an overarching concept since those early Bandcamp records, a collection of singles rather than an ambitious, multifaceted whole. It is as an album of individual experiments that Making a Door Less Open is best treated – somewhat differently therefore to Toledo’s past seven releases, which have all, to some extent, been written and arranged according to some kind of concept.

Of the tracks here, there are more than enough that display bits of old-school Car Seat Headrest mixed with something newer and fresher. ‘Can’t Cool Me Down’ is a great, playful indie rock track with indietronic overtones, a favourite of mine because it doesn’t play to conventions of artistic direction but, in very Toledo-esque fashion, does its own thing. As does ‘There Must Be More Than Blood’, an equally subtle track and almost spiritual successor to How To Leave Town’s ‘The Ending of Dramamine’ - a typically lengthy, well-built, rewarding Car Seat Headrest track.

‘Martin’ too is harmless, fun indie pop, while opener ‘Weightlifters’ continues Toledo’s streak of terrific, slowly-built album openers. If there’s criticism of these tracks, it is simply that they sound so within Toledo’s songwriting capabilities. They’re playful, they’re unpredictable, but he’s always been playful and unpredictable. For “experiments”, they don’t go as far as one may expect.

There are other tracks that are a bit uneventful or even unnoticeable but these aren’t an issue. Most surprising about Making a Door Less Open are those tracks which are actually difficult to listen to. The widely-derided ‘Hollywood’ really is terrible, a kind of alt-rock sulk with verbose, vacuous, obvious lyrics. Every time, it makes for an uncomfortable, even unbearable, listen. ‘Hymn – Remix’ isn’t quite as bad, but it’s close, Toledo opting for an EDM-style instrumental followed by ear-scraping New Age that is knowingly quirky but teeth-grindingly clumsy.

Part of me sees these missteps as simply missteps, but another part finds it simply difficult to get over Toledo writing bad songs. It isn’t so much that everything he has previously written is perfect, but very little was outright dislikeable. And, as is so often the case when a cracks appear in the visage of greatness, once you’ve found some faults you naturally notice others.

So much of Car Seat Headrest’s intrigue and endearment has been due to Toledo’s emotional intelligence; how well he relates to and communicates with his listener, yet Making a Door Less Open is remarkable in how little one engages with Toledo or his theme. For us laymen, the usual youthful conflicts or tugs of nostalgia make for more relatable subject matter than fame. Even so, I connected with his lyricism on a couple of occasions. There were hints on ‘Life Worth Missing’ of the grounded spirit that had flooded Teens of Denial, Teens of Style, Monomania, Nervous Young Man, How To Leave Town, My Back Is Killing Me Baby and both recordings of Twin Fantasy - and those hints made me miss it.

Combine those less-than-listenable tracks with the large absence of one’s emotional connection with Toledo and the lack of overall concept comes back to haunt Making a Door Less Open. The sharp twists in style between tracks lack the cohesion of any kind of narrative arc which, in turn, makes the lower points stand out more prominently. Faults become less forgivable when they aren’t subsumed beneath the brilliance of a greater whole.

And yet, despite the weaknesses of this record in comparison to those that came before, such are the peaks that it ends up conflicting me. Music can, of course, be great without any dead-set concept. Making a Door Less Open can be a weaker Car Seat Headrest album but it still can fare well in comparison with other works of contemporary indie rock. As one dwells upon this album more, it occurs to me not that Making a Door Less Open is a bad record, but that it just doesn’t blow me away. Making a Door Less Open does not enthral and it is not a failure, it is simply an above-par record by a band that has previously, consistently soared far, far higher.

#car seat headrest #making a door less open #indie rock #indietronica #alternative dance #synthpop #2020 #music #review #music review

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indycar-series · 4 years

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INDYCAR 102: INDY 500 (Part 1)

Welcome to INDYCAR 102, the second semester of INDYCAR 101 where we’ll be focusing on the premier event on the INDYCAR calendar: the Indy 500. This race holds as much prestige as winning the series championship, if not more. The race itself is built on a century of tradition and spectacle unlike any other. In writing the 101 course, I decided to give the 500 its own special course, 102. There are so many things to cover in regards to the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, so lets get started.

A CENTURY OF TRADITION

The first Indy 500 was run in 1911. Back then, the track was made of brick (hence the nickname Brickyard) and the cars themselves were very different than the modern Dallara cars you see today. The cars were two-seaters, one seat for the driver, and another for the mechanic. The average lap time these cars did at Indy was 70 mph and it took them 7 hours to finish the 500 mile race. Ray Harroun won the race in his Marmon Wasp, and was the first to add his name to the list of greats.

The 500 has been run every year since, barring the hiatuses for World Wars I and II. Its billed as the crown jewel of the INDYCAR calendar and one of three races making up the Triple Crown, the other two being the 24 hours of Le Mans and the Monaco Grand Prix. The race celebrated its 100-year anniversary in 2011 and its 100th running in 2016.

THE SPECTACLE AND FANFARE

As you’d imagine, with 100 years of history comes 100 years of tradition and fanfare unique to this race. Some of the most famous and iconic traditions surrounding the race are the victory wreath, the bottle of milk, and kissing the bricks. Other traditions include the 21 gun salute, the singing of “Back Home Again in Indiana”, and the 33 drivers in rows of three.

When the organizers in 1911 were deciding which date to pick for the race, they looked at the previous year of events run at the speedway and found that Memorial Day weekend held the highest attendance. The timing was at the end of “haying” season, and was when farmers had a two-week break. Ever since, the race has been run on that weekend as a salute to fallen troops who died in service to their country. As such there is a lot of military fanfare surrounding the weekend. The military bands play the anthems of each division, and the moment of silence and playing of Taps add a somber touch to the otherwise jubilant affair.

Since 1919, the Purdue All-American marching band has performed at every 500. In 1946, “Back Home Again in Indiana” was sung with the band for the first time. It has been sung every year since. The most famous of the singers was Jim Nabors who stepped down in 2014 due to health problems. The new primary singer is Jim Cornelison.

In 1933, Louis Meyer asked for a glass of buttermilk after winning the race, and in 1936 he received a bottle and was captured by a photographer. Ever since, the winner has been offered their choice of milk as a refreshing way to celebrate victory after a long grueling race (except for Emerson Fittipaldi, who asked for a glass of orange juice from his orchard). In more recent years, the winning driver has taken to pouring the glass of milk over their head.

The legendary Borg-Warner trophy was first awarded in 1936.

THE GREATS

Winning the race once is hard enough, but there are some who make a very exclusive club of multi-time champions. Only 19 have won it twice; of those, 10 have won it three times and of those, three have won four times. These drivers are considered among the greats of INDYCAR history.

A.J. Foyt (4 times: 1961, 1964, 1967, 1977)

Al Unser Sr. (4 times: 1970, 1971, 1978, 1987)

Rick Mears (4 times: 1979, 1984, 1988, 1991)

Louis Meyer (3 times: 1928, 1933, 1936)

Wilbur Shaw (3 times: 1937, 1939, 1940)

Mauri Rose (3 times: 1941, 1947, 1948)

Johnny Rutherford (3 times: 1974, 1976, 1980)

Bobby Unser (3 times: 1968, 1975, 1981)

Helio Castroneves (3 times: 2001, 2002, 2009)

Dario Franchitti (3 times: 2007, 2010, 2012)

Tommy Milton (2 times: 1921, 1923)

Bill Vukovich (2 times: 1953, 1954)

Roger Ward (2 times: 1959, 1962)

Gordon Johncock (2 times: 1973, 1982)

Emerson Fittipaldi (2 times: 1989, 1993)

Al Unser Jr. (2 times: 1992, 1994)

Arie Luyendyk (2 times: 1990, 1997)

Dan Wheldon (2 times: 2005, 2011)

Juan Pablo Montoya (2 times: 2000, 2015)

(Part 2)

#indycar 102 #indy 500 #indycar #motorsports

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nerds4life · 4 years

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2 winners and 3 losers from One Direction’s solo albums

The boys have all gone in different … directions … since their indefinite hiatus in 2016. Some are better than others.

By Alexa Lee (Jan 31, 2020, 9:00am EST)

A decade — yes, a decade — ago, a teenage boy band by the name of One Direction was formed. After auditioning as individual singers on the British musical competition The X Factor, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, and Zayn Malik were thrown together into a group by TV personality Simon Cowell in 2010. And thus, One Direction was born.

While the group only placed third on The X Factor, their time on the reality show was just the beginning of their global takeover. Over a span of five years, the group released five albums, did four world tours, broke numerous Billboard 100 music records (including ones previously only held by the Beatles), recorded a documentary, and even released a perfume.

At the same time, the five members also became the basis of adolescent crushes and fervor for many years to come. Thanks to their individual quirks and calculated branding ploys, each boy quickly became an archetype for a different high school crush: Niall was the adorable friend, Harry the artistic boy next door. Zayn was quietly mysterious, while Liam was extroverted and jockish. And Louis? Hmm, well — Louis was also there.

For those five years, the One Direction boys seemed like they were untouchable. That is, until Zayn left the group in 2015 to embark on a solo career, and, a year later, the remaining band members announced an “indefinite hiatus.”

Four years after One Direction announced its hiatus, each of the One Direction-ers have begun their own solo careers. It’s the first time any of them have recorded without each other, and the first time they’ve performed solo in front of an audience since being on The X Factor as teens. Their solo albums, good or bad, reveal how each individual wants to reintroduce themselves to the public, and how they’re attempting the complicated leap from adolescent pop star to independent adult artist.

Now that Louis Tomlinson has dropped his first solo album, every former One Direction member has released at least one solo project. (Harry and Zayn have each released two.) And there are some very clear winners and losers among them. Here’s how they stack up against each other and what each one tells us about who these boys are now that they’ve spent some time apart.

Winner: Fine Line by Harry Styles

Watching Harry emerge triumphantly, hair and culottes billowing, with the title of Most Popular and Critically Acclaimed Ex-One Direction Member is not unlike watching a long-awaited prophecy finally fall into place. Ever since One Direction first stepped into the international limelight, interviews and press circuits saw that Harry was different from his fellow bandmates. He was offbeat but cool, disheveled but sexy.

And in 2017, when he released his debut album named — what else? — Harry Styles, Harry established himself as worthy of all the hype from his years in the band. A brooding rock record filled with anecdotes about all the sex he has and heartbreak he’s felt, Harry Styles reintroduced Harry to the world as an indie songwriter, David Bowie fanboy, and charismatic lover. And with his next, more experimental 2019 album, Harry takes all these elements of his identity a step further, securing his spot in the popular music landscape as a modern rock star.

Harry released Fine Line at the end of last year, interrupting winter’s dreariness with bright, dancey songs about all-consuming yearning. The lyrics of “Adore You” and “Watermelon Sugar” conjure images of summer fruits and summer loves, and both songs set the perfect soundtrack for encountering a crush at a party, or at least fending off seasonal depression. And on “Cherry,” his transportive and melancholy ode to an ex, listeners get a glimpse at genuine heartache from Harry. Despite having built a career out of belting love songs, Harry has never before sounded this vulnerable in his music before. “Cherry” shines a light on the vulnerabilities of a seemingly invulnerable star and brings a touching depth to Harry’s music that was previously absent. Fine Line is the most adventurous and enjoyable of the One Direction members’ solo efforts, and it’s sure to convert even the most crotchety boy band skeptics into believers.

Winner: Flicker by Niall Horan

As a member of One Direction, Niall was beloved — but not for being the band’s breakout star or its scene-stealing performer or even its biggest personality. Niall’s greatest charm, and the primary allure of his 2017 album Flicker, is instead seeming like an ordinary, likable guy. The human embodiment of a chill night in, Niall projects affable, regular-guy energy, but in a more palatable way than, say, Ed Sheeran. He’s a man who, after being part of the most popular boy band this side of the millennia, can still convincingly seem like he’s bemused by his fame and wealth. Niall likes Nando’s, and he likes to golf on the weekends. It’s easy to imagine him as one of those people with the uncanny ability to put horses at ease simply by murmuring the dulcet opening bars of his hit single “This Town” and running his guitar-worn hands over their hides.

Niall brings this same aura of safety and coziness to Flicker, where he strums his acoustic guitar and sings earnestly about the mundane highs and lows of falling in love. His songs are emotionally and musically safe — the most upbeat tracks, “On the Loose” and “Slow Hands,” still retain a mellow, unhurried cadence, and sad songs like “Paper Houses” veer away from raw grief or anguish, opting instead for lyrics that just barely skim the surface of sorrow.

Is it always good when an artist’s best quality is being inoffensive and never taking risks? No, but perhaps in the swirling political and social chaos of 2020, it’s what we need. Niall is a calming lighthouse in the stormy sea of life, and we would be fools to let him out of our sight.

Loser: Icarus Falls by Zayn Malik

Writer Allison P. Davis once described Zayn as someone who “sings about sex like it’s this thing he just heard about on a Jodeci song.” It’s this image of Zayn that echoes in my mind whenever I think about his couple’s photoshoot with model Gigi Hadid, or the boyish pirate-themed pub in his backyard, or his many, many selfies featuring a tortured grimace and 5 o’clock shadow. Despite his reputation for being the quiet, mysterious band member, in his post-One Direction career, Zayn has revealed both his passion for sensual R&B, as well as a powerful lack of convincing sexual energy.

Davis’s one-sentence character study is also a devastatingly apt summary of Zayn’s second album, which came out in 2018. At nearly an hour and a half, Icarus Falls is a boring, corny exploration of what happens when a too-handsome man ensconces himself in cologne and longing. Chock full of weak lyrics (e.g. “That’s how I feel the soul inside her body”) and dull, forgettable beats, the album has neither the playfulness nor sufficient melancholy to breathe life into Zayn’s sensual aspirations, and the end result is unrewarding.

The disappointment of Icarus Falls is worsened by the fact that Zayn’s debut album, Mind of Mine, was so much better. Mind of Mine’s intriguing blasé attitude was an exciting change of pace from Zayn’s demeanor in One Direction, when he was obligated to sing very un-blasé songs like “What Makes You Beautiful.” Although the 2016 record also frequently stumbled when it intended to seduce, it showed signs of artistic promise that make Icarus Falls seem like dull anticlimax, with a mere two exceptions. “Let Me” and “Entertainer” are soothing tracks in which Zayn vows to shower his lover in devotion and luxury items, and they’re the only songs that come close to the groovy fun of his last album. For listeners who are unable to let go of Zayn’s undeniable vocal chops and moody flair (me), these quality songs are exasperating reminders that Zayn is wasting his potential as well as everyone else’s time.

Loser: LP1 by Liam Payne

For many years, Liam seemed poised to stay in the “normal guy” lane with Niall, often playing the band’s cheerful jokester in music videos and interviews. Because of his jovial stage presence and photogenic, symmetrical face, many people — Liam included — thought he would follow the footsteps of another boy band pop mogul, Justin Timberlake. Recently, however, Liam’s public personality has begun to curdle slightly, in the form of controversial Instagram posts about his personal wealth, dating and impregnating the judge at his X Factor audition, and regrettable jewelry he calls the “Payne Chain.” Today, Liam seems less like a new Timberlake and more like a second-rate Bieber.

Liam’s debut album LP1, released in December 2019, follows a similarly cringy trajectory. Boosted by Chainsmoker-esque beats and sleazy lines about “[doing] your ass in the car,” Liam’s music is a bold statement separating himself from the sound of One Direction, but it’s not for the better. At one particularly low point, he leers at and fetishizes his partner’s bisexuality in the song “Both Ways.” But even on tracks without pointedly offensive lyrics, Liam’s bravado comes off as corny, and he fails to utilize his sonorous voice’s full strength. Each song on LP1 sounds like a mishmash assembly of smash hit ingredients, but the final product can’t quite stick the landing, and songs blur together in a haze of tropical synth and repetitive melody.

It’s not all bad, though. Tasteless songs aside, it’s hard not to listen to LP1 without admiring Liam’s unwavering audacity. Not everyone has the bulwark of confidence required to sing lyrics like, “I just wanna have fun and get rowdy / One Coke and Bacardi, sipping lightly,” or release a song called “Hips Don’t Lie” that’s neither a Shakira cover nor good. While this album is not the radio-ready bop collection that Liam was perhaps hoping it would be, LP1 is, above all else, unapologetic about what it is.

Loser: Walls by Louis Tomlinson

In a recent interview with the Guardian, Louis says, “[Niall’s] the most lovely guy in the world … Zayn has a fantastic voice … Harry comes across very cool. Liam’s all about getting the crowd going, doing a bit of dancing … And then there’s me.”

Louis’s self-deprecating remarks reflect the popular perception of him as the forgettable, “other” member of One Direction. Sadly, his same failure to assert himself as a unique public figure and musician is the downfall of his album Walls, which struggles to sound memorable despite being the solo album that most closely resembles One Direction’s former sound.

Louis is the last member of One Direction to release a solo album, largely because he put off recording music for an extended amount of time after the death of his mother and sister in 2016 and 2019, respectively. Given this context, it’s not surprising that Louis’s music is steeped in solemnity, whether he’s nostalgic for an old relationship on “Too Young,” or openly grieving the loss of his family on “Two of Us.”

Unfortunately, Walls feels like a confessional series of diary entries set to drums and tinny acoustic guitar, and while the frank intimacy is a refreshing contrast to, say, Liam, ultimately the album feels lackluster and sonically generic. Soft guitar and even softer vocals accompany lyrics about longing — for someone, a feeling, a moment in the past — making Walls feel like a pale imitation of One Direction’s booming rock-inspired pop rather than an entity of its own. In his first attempt to separate himself musically from the group, Louis once again blends into the background.

Not everyone is better off alone [insert pun about One Direction becoming Many Directions].

The transition from boy band member to adult man solo artist is not an easy one. The scramble to assert oneself as a legitimate, relevant musician can be full of pressure, and not everyone walks away with equal amounts of fame and success. In the case of One Direction, the majority of these underwhelming solo efforts suggest that, as much as the members have striven to express their individuality, their biggest legacy will probably be being part of a group. (Unless we’re talking about Harry Styles, that is.)

#mine #ot5 #ride or die together #and discuss #ot5 reunion

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suburbanmetaldad · 5 years

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What can I do for you?

Here, friends, is my super power:

I can create an entire book — a good one — quickly, with very little help.

You want a book with your name on it. I can make that happen.

Maybe you typed up a draft, and you’re not sure where to go next.

I can take it from here.

And anything smaller than that will be cheaper and faster.

Get on the schedule while you can.

Following are more details about me and my work.

Follow are links to different things D.X. Ferris makes & does.

I am D.X. Ferris.

I grew up obsessed with music and reading. I went to school for writing. At the time, I thought I couldn’t create things. I didn’t know it yet, but I was wrong. I tried to quit. Writing wouldn’t let me. It kept pulling me back in.

Once I figured out how to do what I wanted to do, I made up for lost time. Now I’ve covered a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction for Rolling Stone. I endured a career-ending injury. I’ve been to the Pentagon on business. I’ve written books with & about some of my iconic heroes. Communication is my business, and business is good.

I do a lot of different things.

I am an award-winning writer, editor, manager, publisher, teacher, speaker, cartoonist, maker, co-author, ghost writer, and overall communications professional. To me, those various & sundry processes are all part of the same sphere — and here’s the common thread: Communication is the art of organizing information. That, friend, is what I do. I can do it for you. And we can make some money together.

I have written/co-written nine books. My personal record is four new books in 16 months.

I cut my teeth as a rock & roll journalist. Then I successfully transitioned to hard news. Lately, I’ve been creating motivational literature and self-help books. I write very effective press releases & promo material. I write & storyboard short videos. I’m writer for a documentary I can’t talk about yet.

I get around. I teach college. My CV includes work for dozens of publications, including Rolling Stone and Alternative Press (America’s two top rock & culture magazines). I’ve also written for leading outlets such as The A.V. Club and Decibel. I write and stage communication seminars.

I have been to the Pentagon and National Air & Space Museum on business. I have been backstage at the Vans Warped Tour on business. My body of work includes book-length oral histories.

I have collaborated with certified Grand Masters, civilians, and high-profile musical & Hollywood creative types. I have had Almost Famous moments on the side of the stage at European festivals. I wake up so early it hurts. I make money for my partners.

I am a 33 1/3 author. An Ohio Society of Professional Journalists Reporter of the Year. And a third-degree black belt (in Taekwondo). Also a 32° two-time WM/PM.

Let’s do some good work — and then let’s do some good with what comes from it.

Click the following links for my...

Good Professional Wrestling: Full Contact Life Lessons From the Pinnacle Performance Art The Good Advice From... series is now officially a franchise. Volume II features a foreword by Diamond Dallas Page, motivational icon, founder of health & wellness movement DDP Yoga, and WWE Hall of Famer. Professional wrestling is the toughest business. It is a form of competition built on collaboration and cooperation. Every successful wrestler has a diverse skill set that can help you get over too, no matter what your business or lifestyle. Filled with short chapters and useful advice, this browsable motivational manual features inspirational quotes from dozens of wrestling icons. Each is followed by easy-to-read analysis and actionable tips that can turn a life around.

I collaborated with Darren Paltrowitz on this one-of-a-kind positivity handbook. It breaks down the habits, skills, and strategies that your favorite superstars practice — and you can too, starting today.

Good Advice From Goodfellas: Positive Life Lessons from the Best Mob Movie It’s the last — or maybe first — motivational manual and self-help guide you’ll ever need. 320 pages, paperback; Kindle ebook also available, cheap. At 145 short chapters, it’s the perfect airport/travel book. This unique meditation & reading finds teachable moments in all your favorite and quotes and scenes from this beloved, seminal movie. If you know what to look for, Goodfellas covers all the same evergreen topics as your favorite business podcasts and startup seminars... but it’s a lot more fun. No, seriously.

Co-author of motivational/how-to Masonic leadership manual

Co-author of parents’ motivational guide to kids’ martial arts

I am the most prominent, prolific non-marquee contributor the music-writing/music journalism textbook How to Write About Music, from the brain trust running Bloomsbury/Continuum’s 33 1/3 series. TECHNICALLY, I AM ON THE SAME LABEL AS NEIL GAIMAN. This is one of two or three books on this topic. Note to self: Write your own.

Wrote the official book with Donnie Iris and the Cruisers For my money, Donnie Iris & the Cruisers are the best-kept secret from 80s rock radio. That had not one, but seven hot 100 hits. The bandleader/songer penned an enduring disco hit. AND he worked with three Rock Hall of Fame artists. The band have a continuous near-40-year run. During this epic tale, they work with a young Trent Reznor, Kiss, Breathless, Cinderella, Sam Kinison, Gamble & Huff, the Jaggerz, Wolfman Jack, and bunch of others. The book is a painstakingly researched oral history that plays like a mix of the four-hour Tom Petty documentary, the movie That Thing You Do!, and the American Hardcore book. Coffee-table book, 464 pages, 102 images, 308 endnotes, 8.5x11″.

Wrote two books about thrash-metal icons Slayer

One is part of 33 1/3, the vanguard series of music-related writing.

One is an exhaustively researched full-length biography featuring 33 images and over 400 endnotes.

Publisher of 6623 Press, home to creator-owned, useful, reasonably priced, unconventional books about popular culture, success, and other cool stuff. People like them.

Full-service, full-contact indie publishing. I write, co-write, ghost-write, edit, and publish books. Quickly.

Do you have book in you? We’ll get it out.

Worked for Rolling Stone, the no. 1 music & culture magazine ever.

I’ve been writing for Alternative Press — America’s no. 2 music magazine — off & on since 2002. More recent pieces are here. Older material is here.

Wrote for alternative newsweekly Cleveland Scene, in various capacities, for 8 years. Won numerous awards for news reporting, business reporting, arts reporting, commentary, feature writing, personality profiling, and sports reporting. Click here for profiles, business features, columns, reviews, and more.

I think this piece about Cleveland’s LeBron James banner won me the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists’ Best Reporter award: Literally the entire city was looking at an iconic, massive piece of public art/advertising — and I was the one person who looked behind the scenes. For alt-weekly Cleveland Scene.

https://www.clevescene.com/64-and-counting/archives/2010/08/05/goodbye-lebron-banner-hello-sunshine-workers-behind-the-banner-speak

For Rolling Stone, I interviewed a band and created unofficial liner notes for a classic album:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/they-might-be-giants-flood-track-by-track-guide-to-the-geek-chic-breakthrough-82345/

This kind of piece is a specialty. For Alternative Press, I interviewed an infamous punk musician about his friendship with the late, great Anthony Bourdain. I supplied many conversation prompts, transcribed it, then edited his answers into one continuous narrative, while I remained invisible in the piece. If it looks like I didn’t do much, then that was the entire point.

https://www.altpress.com/features/anthony-bourdain-harley-flanagan-cro-mags-tribute/

I visit a business, describe the experience, and research how a controversial industry works. For Cleveland Scene.

https://www.clevescene.com/cleveland/game-of-chance/Content?oid=2183398

While the rest of the rock-journalism world were writing SOPA stories (Summarizing Other People’s Articles) about a developing story, I dug deep, excavated some court records, and wrote an informed summary. For Metal Sucks — for my money, the best metal news & views site.

https://www.metalsucks.net/2019/06/11/how-many-more-misfits-reunion-shows-will-there-be-according-to-legal-documents-probably-just-one/

A friendly multi-person Q&A and sidebar, stitched together from three different interviews from different media. For Alt Press.

https://www.altpress.com/features/punk-goes-fearless-records-interview/

Cover story/feature profile of the president of a local university — and how his work has helped shape the city. It’s pretty whitebread and dry, but I can work in that style when I’m not writing about raging hellions. For Cleveland Magazine, the city’s upstanding guide to what’s happening and who’s doing it.

https://clevelandmagazine.com/in-the-cle/the-read/articles/city-mission

News interview with Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cavaliers and Quicken Loans. For Scene.

https://www.clevescene.com/cleveland/enhanced-interrogation-dan-gilbert/Content?oid=1678536

Excerpt from Good Advice From Goodfellas, my self-improvement book that draws positive life lessons from the greatest gangster movie:

https://6623press.tumblr.com/post/181078213342/the-new-self-helpmotivational-manual-good-help

Christmas Sevenfold: Metal Dad, Compendium Two My second comic-strip compilation collects seven years of Christmas & fall holiday stripes, with new art, a foreword, and an essay about why the kind of guy who wrote two books about Slayer still loves Xmas. 180 pages, oversized 8.5 x 11″ paperback.

Suburban Metal Dad, Compendium One: Raging Bullshit. The first compilation book for my webcomic. It collects Years III and IV of the comic, with 172 strips, 8 previously unreleased demo strips, an updated FAQ, and a true-life, all-text real-life metal dad story (so there’s something to really read). 180 pages, oversized 8.5 x 11″ paperback.

Individual strips of Suburban Metal Dad, an online comic that has run twice weekly since 2010.

I am totally into the Misfits/Danzig/Samhain, and wrote a bunch of stuff about this record-setting continuum of ground-breaking musicians

I wrote things for Metal Sucks

Guest on heavy metal podcasts, and bloggage about it all

Guest on assorted TV and superhero-show podcasts

Guest host on rock podcast Lost Together

Annotated both versions of “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” at Genius

Random bloggage about stuff that isn’t necessarily metal... mostly movies and holiday stuff like a survey of Christmas imagery in True Detective season 1

Tweet too much, but it’s healthier than taking cigarette breaks.

The Pentagrammarian: I take note of writing, grammar, usage, and the business thereof. I am one of very few professional writers who can list the four parts of a well-rounded profile or break down the constituent parts of a sentence, in correct technical grammar terms.

The goat had it comin’. I swear.

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yearsblog · 6 years

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How do you follow up a smash hit album that, in your native country alone, sold over a quarter of a million copies, spent two weeks at Number 1 (and didn’t budge from the Top 40 for over a year), spawned both a Number 1 (which itself sold just shy of a million copies) and a Number 2 single, and earned you four Brit Award nominations? With a bit of time and patience, it seems – or at least that’s how Years & Years have done it. The London-based, British-Australian trio’s second studio album ‘Palo Santo’, the follow up to 2015’s banger-filled, world-beating debut ‘Communion’, which put singer Olly Alexander and multi-instrumentalists Emre Türkmen and Mikey Goldsworthy on the proverbial map, has just been unleashed onto the world and currently boasts a handsome score of 82 on Metacritic, a 14-point increase on their previous offering. They may have, by their own admission, suffered from a little Difficult Second Album Syndrome, but the numbers don’t lie – their patience in crafting this record has absolutely paid off.

In reality, it’s not been an inordinately long wait for Years & Years fans, just three years, almost to the day – shorter than we were made to wait for recent sophomore offerings from Lorde, HAIM, Sam Smith and London Grammar. We meet for our interview on the third anniversary of the release of ‘Communion’,four days after ‘Palo Santo’ dropped, on the afternoon of the London instalment of the brief run of gigs across Europe and North America that are serving as the album’s launch parties. Despite being in the middle of a mad release week, packed with media appearances and album promotion, there’s little sign of fatigue from the band. The mayhem of the day hasn’t yet gotten to Emre, who has the clarity of mind to quickly fix an issue with our Polaroid camera, nor Olly, who is supposedly on vocal rest ahead of the performance, but voluntarily sings lines of ‘Sanctify’ as we snap our pictures. With his hair freshly re-dyed red, he’s in a chipper mood. “We can’t wait to be inside you,” he offers as his message to fans in New Zealand, before rethinking his contribution: “Bit weird.” Similarly cheeky humour comes from the stage late in that night's set: “I’m really wet,” he tells the adoring crowd, adding, “Sign of a good night, if you ask me.” There’s no shortage of banter on this promo circus.

If the magic took a little time to return during their writing and recording sessions in the British countryside last year, you wouldn’t notice from listening to ‘Palo Santo’, a record that manages to capture an unmistakeable Years & Years sound, while also pushing them into new territory. There’s particularly noticeable progress in the lyrics: whereas on ‘Communion’, the tracks often sounded as if Olly was writing them while looking directly into the eyes of their subjects, ignoring all surroundings and speaking purely from the heart, on ‘Palo Santo’, the lens is widened and we’re given more context, as well as a greater sense of space and time, to aid our understanding of each of these relationships and encounters. This advancement is particularly evident on ’Lucky Escape’ (in which a bitter scroll through an ex’s Instagram leads to a disparaging sense of relief at having ended things) and the title track (about the complicated experience of being the third party in an open relationship), each about different, yet fully-realised romantic partners.

This lyrical evolution is also apparent on first single ‘Sanctify’, the tale of a fling with a straight-identifying man, suggesting that a discrepancy in two partners’ confidence in their respective sexualities can lead to an interesting power-play in the bedroom. Despite the erotic thrill of the track, Olly’s writing manages to remain sympathetic to a man who “lately life’s been tearing […] apart." "I know how it can hurt / being cut in two and afraid,” he discloses, with surprising depth and warmth for a song so carnal. He’s a lyricist of great heart, trying to make sense of troubled men who are in turn trying to make sense of themselves, even if the romantic relationship he has with them doesn’t extend beyond the bedroom.

Olly’s background as an actor has gained new relevance with the release of ‘Palo Santo’, which sees him take a lead role in the accompanying short film and reteam with co-stars from his years on stage and screen. Before Years & Years properly got going, it was for supporting roles in films like ‘God Help The Girl’, ‘The Riot Club’ and (as Mikey teasingly reminds Olly during our interview) ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ that Olly became a recognisable face. He even featured opposite Greta Gerwig, the future Oscar-nominated director of ‘Lady Bird’, in the tiny 2011 indie ‘The Dish and The Spoon’, and could often be found on the London stage, turning in a string of critically-praised performances in plays between 2010 and 2013. The final play in which he appeared was John Logan’s ‘Peter & Alice’, which imagined the meeting between the two real life inspirations behind ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and ‘Peter Pan’, played by Dame Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw respectively. In cutaways to the fictional world created by J.M. Barrie, Olly played Peter Pan, fighting for his right to exist despite the wishes of his non-fictional counterpart, Peter Llewelyn Davies, that his life hadn’t been stolen from him by Barrie.

Jump forward five years and these three co-stars are reunited in another fantasy world in which Olly is a different kind of exceptional boy at the mercy of older powers, striving to assert his individuality. Dench is now the cryptic “mother of Palo Santo,” and Whishaw, who also appeared in one of the earliest Years & Years videos, for ‘Real’, makes a fleeting appearance as a hologram, giving an announcement to the city’s inhabitants. The film, shot in Thailand, is wild and ambitious in a way that, away from the output of the Beyoncés and Gagas of the A-list, pop often isn’t anymore. It also gives Olly the chance to sink his teeth into a role beyond just a dialogue-less, short-form music video. His character, also named Olly Alexander, is made to perform repeatedly for audiences, before growing tired and dismayed with being exploited and finding a way to explore his emotions away from the control of others.

Tonight, it’s on another London stage, a couple of miles north of the one they previously shared, that Olly and Dame Judi are reunited. Her voice is woven through the band’s live show at Camden’s Roundhouse, just as it is through the film. The iconic 83-year-old Oscar-winner’s narration has become an integral part of this project, but those hoping for an appearance from the Dame herself tonight are left disappointed, but probably not surprised, at her absence – she remains a formless, floating voice, just as in the world of Palo Santo.

But what does ‘Palo Santo’ actually mean? Despite its placement as the penultimate song on the album, the title track is the record’s centrepiece, a meditative and powerful cut more mature than anything found on their previous LP, on which Olly cries out, “You’re the darkness in me, Palo Santo.” In its most literal sense, the title comes from the name of the thick, wooden incense blocks that the party in the open relationship with whom Olly was involved was burning during their time together. The direct translation is, somewhat amusingly, ‘holy wood’, and their vapours are said to purify the air and cleanse it of evil and darkness.

But such is the expansive universe that the three-piece have built around this two-word term that it now carries several possible interpretations beyond the literal. Alternatively, ‘Palo Santo’ could be a moniker for this man himself, and the short-lived love triangle relationship, which perhaps represents a time of darkness for Olly.

Given the double use of ‘Palo Santo’ as the title of the record and of the futuristic, android world of the accompanying short film, a couple of further, more meta readings avail themselves to us. ‘Palo Santo’ the album could contain the darkness in Olly, with many songs, such as ‘Lucky Escape’, ‘All For You’ and ‘If You’re Over Me’, depicting him at challenging moments following a break-up, as he attempts to power through and come out on top of love rather than be defeated by it.

The world of Palo Santo seen in the film also has a strong connection to a possible darkness within Olly, as it explores the intersection of disconnect and emotionlessness with sensuality and performance. “The divine, amazing and incredible Olly Alexander”, as he is introduced by the Showman character, is one of very few non-androids in Palo Santo, and the androids, as we learn from the Star Wars-esque pre-scroll in Fred Rowson’s film, “desire nothing more than to experience real emotion,” which feels resonant with Olly’s outspoken discussion of his own mental health struggles. When taken alongside songs like ‘Hallelujah’and ‘Rendezvous’, which tell of rather non-committal sexual encounters, we see the same topics in ‘Palo Santo’ that Olly explored last year in his BBC documentary ‘Growing Up Gay’, of how struggles with mental health are sadly pervasive within the queer community.

In the live performance, it’s during ‘Palo Santo’ that Olly, donning a sparkly robe of almost ten metres in length, is raised up on a platform in front of a huge moon, a star ascending across a dark night. It’s a triumphant, almost unbelievable moment of spectacle meeting emotion. There may be “darkness” in this album, but it’s notably never in the form of sadness, and almost entirely hidden in joyous moments of pure pop. In their live show, Years & Years take the chance to show this overcoming of difficulty and adversity through a visual metaphor that literally grows before the audience’s eyes, and it’s an awesome sight to behold.

Despite being a Palo Santo Party, their setlist is equally balanced between their two albums. The newer cuts – such as the snappy ‘Karma’ and thumping ‘Hallelujah’, both just days old to fans – are received ecstatically, and the familiar hits bring some of the night’s most notable moments. Olly is briefly distracted by his front row devotees during ‘Take Shelter’ and stumbles to the end of a verse, before later bringing out an Italian fan who, thanks to the Make A Wish Foundation, gets to sit with him at the piano as he plays ‘Eyes Shut’, leading to one of the night’s biggest cheers. It’s when MNEK returns to the stage for the encore, following his spritely support set, for the debut of a new duet called ‘Valentino’, that the night hits peak gay, much to the fans’ delight. A Latin-flavoured bop telling of an infatuation with a boy “from the outskirts of East LA,” it owes a generous debt to Lady Gaga’s ‘Americano’ (a 2011 album track which opens “I met a girl in East LA…”), as well as the best of 90s girl-band R&B. Fingers crossed we get a studio version ASAP.

Earlier that day, we spoke to Years & Years about developing their songwriting for ‘Palo Santo’, avoiding sadness on a break-up record, when they expect they’ll finally be coming to New Zealand, and much more…

COUP DE MAIN: So it’s three years today since ‘Communion’ came out. EMRE TÜRKMEN: Is it? CDM: It is, happy birthday to it! How has release week been different this time around? OLLY ALEXANDER: It’s similar in the sense that I can’t remember much of it, because we’ve been so all over the place. I guess this time round, you’re… MIKEY GOLDSWORTHY: More of a veteran? OLLY: Yeah, I guess. First time around, I felt like I was hit by a truck. Not in a bad way, not in a negative way, just because it’s so overwhelming. But I think now I feel more grateful that fans have stuck around and that people like the new music. Because you can never take it for granted, can you? What about you guys? EMRE: The first time felt more intense, actually, I seem to remember. Because you know what to expect, in a certain way, it’s less mental. MIKEY: We’re doing similar things. We did [BBC Radio 2 show] Chris Evans last time. We did three countries in one day. CDM: Did you have a big launch show like this one? MIKEY: Not a big one, it was in a little club near Oxford Street. OLLY: We didn’t do anything in America though, did we? I think this time, we tried to do Palo Santo parties, like, East Coast and West Coast America, Berlin and here, so in that sense it’s been way more ambitious. Generally, I think we tried to be a bit more ambitious this time around.

CDM: There seems to be a real progression in your lyrics on this record. They’re more precise and specific than they were on ‘Communion’, and even involve some clever wordplay, particularly on ‘straight’ and ‘mask/masc’ on ‘Sanctify’. Did you approach writing lyrics differently this time around? OLLY: Yeah. Songwriting, especially lyrics – the more you do it, the more you uncover and the more you learn about your own process. The stuff that you write when you’re 20 is going to be different from the stuff you write when you’re 25, which is going to be different from the stuff you write when you’re 27. So I think, by its very nature, it develops and changes. But just as a human being, I feel more confident to write the shit that I actually have in my head. Not that it felt like I was stopping myself before, but I think it made a difference feeling more confident in myself this time around.

THE NEW SONG WE’RE MOST EXCITED TO PLAY LIVE IS…

CDM: I think my favourite song on the album is ‘Karma’, which grapples with whether what you’ve done in the past will lead to good or bad fortune in the future. (“No I can’t tell what’s right or wrong / Is there a consequence for all I’ve done?”) Was there something you were trying to answer about the role that guilt has in your life, and whether it’s worth holding onto? OLLY: I guess there’s some specifics that I relate to my own life. Some of those are to do with relationships, some of those are to do with my childhood, and generally about morality and, like, is karma real? And that song, the beginning of the session, I was writing with my friend Sarah Hudson who’s amazing and she’s very like witchy and into like occults and esoteric stuff, and she did a reading for us at the beginning and one of the cards was called ‘karma’ and we were like,“Oh, yes! Let’s write a song called ‘Karma’.”

CDM: How was the experience of writing with Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter on ‘Hallelujah’ and ‘Preacher’? OLLY: Oh, good! It was kind of intense because they’re songwriting royalty. I had the head of our label call me up before the session, because everyone was freaking out. They think if you put people in a room, you’re going to come out with a number one song, and there’s so much pressure on it to be good. So I was quite nervous to meet them, but they’re so warm and so inviting. Julia’s a legend too, but because Justin has had such a trailblazing, queer career and because he’s such a queer force in songwriting and in pop music, I was really humbled to be in his presence. And it was fun, you know, it was nice to work with them because you get to see into another writer’s process. I had no idea if my ideas or the stuff that I’ve been doing as a songwriter was any good, and then when I worked with them, I realised that they do similar things, and I was like,“Okay, this is nice, to be able to do this.” And we got a good song out of it!

MY FAVOURITE SONG WRITTEN BY JULIA MICHAELS AND JUSTIN TRANTER IS…

CDM: ‘Palo Santo’ seems to be very much a post-relationship record, with ‘If You’re Over Me’, ‘All For You’ and ‘Lucky Escape’ – as well as the Kele Okereke song that you featured on last year, Olly, ‘Grounds For Resentment’ – detailing how an ex can continue to occupy space in your mind and life once the relationship is over. It’s kind of lacking in heartbreak, unlike most break-up records we hear. Were there sadder songs you wrote for the record that didn’t make the cut? OLLY: I’m trying to think now. MIKEY: There were slower songs. I don’t know if they were sad. OLLY: We had a lot of songs, and then whittled them down. The ones we put on the album felt like the strongest ones. It wasn’t until I saw them together as a group like that where I realised the theme did feel like looking back on a relationship and trying to sort of dig through the shit that happened and feeling sort of angry and frustrated about that, but in a place of empowerment rather than feeling destroyed by it.

CDM: Olly, you’ve described ‘Lucky Escape’ as a petty song. Do you think that pettiness is a necessary, or helpful, part of the post-break-up experience? OLLY: Kind of! I think that I really, really bite my tongue in arguments with people, and I never say the thing I wish I’d said. But in a song, you have way more time! <laughs> MIKEY: It’s annoying when you have an argument and you go back and you’re like, “Ah, I should’ve said that! I would’ve sounded so smart!”

CDM: Olly, you gave Rihanna the first LP of ‘Palo Santo’ after you appeared with her on The Graham Norton Show. So say she’s scouting for new writers for her next album, and just one song from the record could be your calling card, which one would you want her to listen to and think, “I want him to write for me”? OLLY: I’m trying to imagine myself as Rihanna and think what she would like. Maybe ‘Palo Santo’. I’m just proud of the song and the songwriting on that. It’s quite unusual for a pop song. I guess you can argue, “What the fuck is a pop song?” But maybe that one. I feel like she might vibe with that.

CDM: ‘Palo Santo’ is so ambitious and high-concept, in a way that you don’t see many other British artists attempting or getting away with. It seems to come more naturally to American artists like Janelle Monáe and Halsey. Do you think there’s something about British culture that makes it easy to ridicule or be cynical about these sorts of ideas? OLLY: There’s some truth to that, I expect. MIKEY: David Bowie was British and did a lot of that kind of stuff. EMRE: I mean, I think the first concept album of all time was The Beatles. <laughs> Pink Floyd springs to mind… CDM: I guess I mean more in the present. OLLY: But you’re right, I agree. MIKEY: I know what you mean, Americans seem more confident with not caring what other people think. British people always seem to scrutinise other British people. Australians have inherited a little bit of that culture, as well. Especially in Melbourne. OLLY: Brits can be cynical, but I like that about being British. I guess you could say Americans definitely go for bells and whistles and big statements, and are generally considered more ambitious. CDM: Was there ever a concern about people not getting on board with it? OLLY: Yeah, I was worried all the time. But I realised that I was the best salesperson for the project, so I was telling everyone it was going to be so amazing. I went into the label and gave them a PowerPoint presentation about how everything was going to look and all the videos and the merchandise and the live show. I compensated feeling a bit nervous about the whole thing by being extra, extra, extra confident on the surface. <laughs>

HOW YOU GET TO PALO SANTO…

CDM: You’ve reteamed with your former co-star Judi Dench for the narration on ‘Palo Santo’, which is quite abstract – did she have much of an idea of what it was she was saying? OLLY: Yeah! Well, I said to her that she was the queen of androids. She’s sort of like the mother of Palo Santo, so she’s like this omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent – all three – character within Palo Santo, but she’s also kind of serving a poetic Beyoncé voiceover in ‘Lemonade’. So I told her all of that, and I think she was a bit like, “What the fuck?” But she loved it. She was like, “Are you telling me I’m old? Like an old android?” And I was like, “No!” So she was a bit upset about that. But she killed it!

CDM: Back when you were acting, Olly, you played quite a few innocent or corrupted boys dealing with something traumatic, however your character in ‘Palo Santo’ is more powerful and strong, even though he’s in a subordinate role. How much of an impact did being cast in those sorts of roles have on how you saw yourself, and are you trying to push back against that image of yourself now? OLLY: I mean, you put it in a really good way, actually. When you’re acting, you’re just taking the world that you’re given and you don’t really have much choice in the matter. In that sense, I found it quite creatively stifling, because you’re just doing someone else’s work and you’re playing [roles] other people are putting you into. But even when I look at the music videos we did for ‘Communion’, like ‘King’… I guess by the time we got to ‘Worship’ it had shifted, but in all our music videos, I’m getting thrown around, or beaten up, or in ‘Shine’a building collapses on me. I got more and more dissatisfied with being passive, and I think part of the reason I wanted to make a film of ‘Palo Santo’ was so that I could embody a character I would want to be.

CDM: The film has a pretty ambiguous ending, with your character onstage, unable to sing. Will we get to see more of this world, will it be expanded? OLLY: Yes, it will be. As soon as the label give us more money! <laughs> MIKEY: It’s expensive, Palo Santo.

CDM: When can we expect to FINALLY have you play in New Zealand? Because there was the whole situation in 2016 with the cancelled shows… OLLY: I know… It wasn’t our fault! MIKEY: Wait, what happened with that again? OLLY: It was the Ellie Goulding support slot. [The band had to pull out of the Australia and New Zealand leg of Ellie Goulding’s Delirium tour due to logistical difficulties.] MIKEY: Oh, sorry, yeah! My family bought tickets, so I owe them all, like, a hundred quid. There’s talk of next year. I mean, don’t quote me on this, which you will. <laughs>But there’s talk of Oceania/Asia vibes next year. That would make sense. I can pretty much 100% say we won’t be in New Zealand this year. OLLY: I really hope when we go that we get some actual time to spend there, and not just, like, one day. MIKEY: Yeah, it’s beautiful. One of the best-looking countries.

MY FAVOURITE THING ABOUT EMRE IS…

MY FAVOURITE THING ABOUT MIKEY IS…

MY FAVOURITE THING ABOUT OLLY IS…

‘Palo Santo’ is available now. You can watch the accompanying short film below:

youtube

#years & years #article #interview #coup de main

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ollyarchive · 6 years

Photo

INTERVIEW: YEARS & YEARS ON THE WORLD OF 'PALO SANTO', THE DIFFICULT SECOND ALBUM AND DAME JUDI DENCH.

24th August 2018 by

Rory Horne

In reality, it’s not been an inordinately long wait for Years & Years fans, just three years, almost to the day – shorter than we were made to wait for recent sophomore offerings from Lorde, HAIM, Sam Smith and London Grammar. We meet for our interview on the third anniversary of the release of ‘Communion’, four days after ‘Palo Santo’ dropped, on the afternoon of the London instalment of the brief run of gigs across Europe and North America that are serving as the album’s launch parties. Despite being in the middle of a mad release week, packed with media appearances and album promotion, there’s little sign of fatigue from the band. The mayhem of the day hasn’t yet gotten to Emre, who has the clarity of mind to quickly fix an issue with our Polaroid camera, nor Olly, who is supposedly on vocal rest ahead of the performance, but voluntarily sings lines of ‘Sanctify’ as we snap our pictures. With his hair freshly re-dyed red, he’s in a chipper mood. “We can’t wait to be inside you,” he offers as his message to fans in New Zealand, before rethinking his contribution: “Bit weird.” Similarly cheeky humour comes from the stage late in that night's set: “I’m really wet,” he tells the adoring crowd, adding, “Sign of a good night, if you ask me.” There’s no shortage of banter on this promo circus.

If the magic took a little time to return during their writing and recording sessions in the British countryside last year, you wouldn’t notice from listening to ‘Palo Santo’, a record that manages to capture an unmistakeable Years & Years sound, while also pushing them into new territory. There’s particularly noticeable progress in the lyrics: whereas on ‘Communion’, the tracks often sounded as if Olly was writing them while looking directly into the eyes of their subjects, ignoring all surroundings and speaking purely from the heart, on ‘Palo Santo’, the lens is widened and we’re given more context, as well as a greater sense of space and time, to aid our understanding of each of these relationships and encounters. This advancement is particularly evident on 'Lucky Escape' (in which a bitter scroll through an ex’s Instagram leads to a disparaging sense of relief at having ended things) and the title track (about the complicated experience of being the third party in an open relationship), each about different, yet fully-realised romantic partners.

This lyrical evolution is also apparent on first single ‘Sanctify’, the tale of a fling with a straight-identifying man, suggesting that a discrepancy in two partners’ confidence in their respective sexualities can lead to an interesting power-play in the bedroom. Despite the erotic thrill of the track, Olly's writing manages to remain sympathetic to a man who "lately life's been tearing [...] apart." "I know how it can hurt / being cut in two and afraid," he discloses, with surprising depth and warmth for a song so carnal. He's a lyricist of great heart, trying to make sense of troubled men who are in turn trying to make sense of themselves, even if the romantic relationship he has with them doesn't extend beyond the bedroom.

The world of Palo Santo seen in the film also has a strong connection to a possible darkness within Olly, as it explores the intersection of disconnect and emotionlessness with sensuality and performance. “The divine, amazing and incredible Olly Alexander”, as he is introduced by the Showman character, is one of very few non-androids in Palo Santo, and the androids, as we learn from the Star Wars-esque pre-scroll in Fred Rowson’s film, “desire nothing more than to experience real emotion,” which feels resonant with Olly’s outspoken discussion of his own mental health struggles. When taken alongside songs like ‘Hallelujah’ and ‘Rendezvous’, which tell of rather non-committal sexual encounters, we see the same topics in ‘Palo Santo’ that Olly explored last year in his BBC documentary ‘Growing Up Gay’, of how struggles with mental health are sadly pervasive within the queer community.

Despite being a Palo Santo Party, their setlist is equally balanced between their two albums. The newer cuts – such as the snappy ‘Karma’ and thumping ‘Hallelujah’, both just days old to fans – are received ecstatically, and the familiar hits bring some of the night’s most notable moments. Olly is briefly distracted by his front row devotees during ‘Take Shelter’ and stumbles to the end of a verse, before later bringing out an Italian fan who, thanks to the Make A Wish Foundation, gets to sit with him at the piano as he plays ‘Eyes Shut’, leading to one of the night’s biggest cheers. It's when MNEK returns to the stage for the encore, following his spritely support set, for the debut of a new duet called ‘Valentino’, that the night hits peak gay, much to the fans’ delight. A Latin-flavoured bop telling of an infatuation with a boy “from the outskirts of East LA,” it owes a generous debt to Lady Gaga’s ‘Americano’ (a 2011 album track which opens “I met a girl in East LA...”), as well as the best of 90s girl-band R&B. Fingers crossed we get a studio version ASAP.

COUP DE MAIN: So it’s three years today since ‘Communion’ came out. EMRE TÜRKMEN: Is it? CDM: It is, happy birthday to it! How has release week been different this time around? OLLY ALEXANDER: It’s similar in the sense that I can’t remember much of it, because we’ve been so all over the place. I guess this time round, you’re… MIKEY GOLDSWORTHY:More of a veteran? OLLY: Yeah, I guess. First time around, I felt like I was hit by a truck. Not in a bad way, not in a negative way, just because it’s so overwhelming. But I think now I feel more grateful that fans have stuck around and that people like the new music. Because you can never take it for granted, can you? What about you guys? EMRE: The first time felt more intense, actually, I seem to remember. Because you know what to expect, in a certain way, it’s less mental. MIKEY: We’re doing similar things. We did [BBC Radio 2 show] Chris Evans last time. We did three countries in one day. CDM: Did you have a big launch show like this one? MIKEY: Not a big one, it was in a little club near Oxford Street. OLLY: We didn’t do anything in America though, did we? I think this time, we tried to do Palo Santo parties, like, East Coast and West Coast America, Berlin and here, so in that sense it’s been way more ambitious. Generally, I think we tried to be a bit more ambitious this time around.

CDM: I think my favourite song on the album is ‘Karma’, which grapples with whether what you’ve done in the past will lead to good or bad fortune in the future. (“No I can’t tell what’s right or wrong / Is there a consequence for all I’ve done?”) Was there something you were trying to answer about the role that guilt has in your life, and whether it’s worth holding onto? OLLY: I guess there’s some specifics that I relate to my own life. Some of those are to do with relationships, some of those are to do with my childhood, and generally about morality and, like, is karma real? And that song, the beginning of the session, I was writing with my friend Sarah Hudson who’s amazing and she’s very like witchy and into like occults and esoteric stuff, and she did a reading for us at the beginning and one of the cards was called ‘karma’ and we were like, “Oh, yes! Let’s write a song called ‘Karma’.”

CDM: How was the experience of writing with Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter on ‘Hallelujah’ and ‘Preacher’? OLLY: Oh, good! It was kind of intense because they’re songwriting royalty. I had the head of our label call me up before the session, because everyone was freaking out. They think if you put people in a room, you’re going to come out with a number one song, and there’s so much pressure on it to be good. So I was quite nervous to meet them, but they’re so warm and so inviting. Julia’s a legend too, but because Justin has had such a trailblazing, queer career and because he’s such a queer force in songwriting and in pop music, I was really humbled to be in his presence. And it was fun, you know, it was nice to work with them because you get to see into another writer’s process. I had no idea if my ideas or the stuff that I’ve been doing as a songwriter was any good, and then when I worked with them, I realised that they do similar things, and I was like, “Okay, this is nice, to be able to do this.” And we got a good song out of it!

CDM: Olly, you gave Rihanna the first LP of ‘Palo Santo’ after you appeared with her on The Graham Norton Show. So say she’s scouting for new writers for her next album, and just one song from the record could be your calling card, which one would you want her to listen to and think, “I want him to write for me”? OLLY: I’m trying to imagine myself as Rihanna and think what she would like. Maybe ‘Palo Santo’. I’m just proud of the song and the songwriting on that. It’s quite unusual for a pop song. I guess you can argue, "What the fuck is a pop song?" But maybe that one. I feel like she might vibe with that.

CDM: Back when you were acting, Olly, you played quite a few innocent or corrupted boys dealing with something traumatic, however your character in ‘Palo Santo’ is more powerful and strong, even though he’s in a subordinate role. How much of an impact did being cast in those sorts of roles have on how you saw yourself, and are you trying to push back against that image of yourself now? OLLY: I mean, you put it in a really good way, actually. When you’re acting, you’re just taking the world that you’re given and you don’t really have much choice in the matter. In that sense, I found it quite creatively stifling, because you’re just doing someone else’s work and you’re playing [roles] other people are putting you into. But even when I look at the music videos we did for ‘Communion’, like ‘King’… I guess by the time we got to ‘Worship’ it had shifted, but in all our music videos, I’m getting thrown around, or beaten up, or in ‘Shine’ a building collapses on me. I got more and more dissatisfied with being passive, and I think part of the reason I wanted to make a film of ‘Palo Santo’ was so that I could embody a character I would want to be.

CDM: When can we expect to FINALLY have you play in New Zealand? Because there was the whole situation in 2016 with the cancelled shows… OLLY: I know… It wasn’t our fault! MIKEY: Wait, what happened with that again? OLLY: It was the Ellie Goulding support slot. [The band had to pull out of the Australia and New Zealand leg of Ellie Goulding’s Delirium tour due to logistical difficulties.] MIKEY: Oh, sorry, yeah! My family bought tickets, so I owe them all, like, a hundred quid. There’s talk of next year. I mean, don’t quote me on this, which you will. <laughs> But there’s talk of Oceania/Asia vibes next year. That would make sense. I can pretty much 100% say we won’t be in New Zealand this year. OLLY: I really hope when we go that we get some actual time to spend there, and not just, like, one day. MIKEY: Yeah, it’s beautiful. One of the best-looking countries.

#olly alexander #years & years #yearsandyears #articles #coupdemain #photos #palo santo #judidench

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recommendedlisten · 5 years

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There were hardly any blockbuster albums in 2018, but there definitely was no shortage of great albums either. For that reason, the year in music was better off for it. Similar to how this year's 30 Best Songs came from an open field where newer artists breaking through the underground could take a seat at the same table as innovative veterans and modern pop royalty alike, the 30 Best Albums of 2018 tells a similar story of a past not showing any signs of being beyond its prime, and a very promising future as to what its rookie artists might create one day when they're no longer the buzzworthy genre outsiders, punks, dance makers, and indie rockers the scene's radar. And speaking of the latter, it looks like many of this decade's earliest risers have proven themselves as worthy of the hype through greater substance and hitting their own strides. Less obvious, however, was that 2018 was a banister year for a new wave of hardcore band that continue to challenge the status quo beyond every circle of sound imaginable. If you've been waiting for the real thing, this year's top honors delivered it to you. 2019 has a lot to live up, because if it's half as interesting as the 30 Best Albums of 2018, we'll still be very lucky as listeners.

30. Hovvdy - Cranberry [Double Double Whammy]

With their graduation to Double Double Whammy for its sophomore effort Cranberry, Hovvdy have removed much of the digital tape deck hiss from their debut to make memories even more vivid when being stored inside their songs. And yet, Cranberry is still as soft a listen in a lovely way as its predecessor was despite its sharper clarity, which leads one to believe that the duo of Will Taylor and Charlie Martin are more focused on the way the listening experience captures a feeling rather than seeks out a way to recreate it. The songs’ tempos oft slowly trot through crisp strums and repetitive drum steps, occasionally fluttered in the warm hum of Casiotones (courtesy of fellow Austin DIY scene peer Hannah Read of Lomelda), but in defining their shapes in bolder lines with proper pop construction, Taylor’s plainspoken singing have a bigger space on the canvas to paint broad-stroked stories onto and allow the details – as muted as they are – to sink in full.

29. House of Feelings - New Lows [Joyful Noise Recordings]

What started as a radio show and dance night spinning some of the most esoteric sounds in dance and electronic vibes is now a living, breathing music collective of creatives from all corners of the underground built on an unbreakable foundation known as House of Feelings. On the NYC troupe’s debut full-length New Lows, multi-faceted songwriter Matty Fasano, YVETTE drummer and producer Dale Eisinger, songwriter Joe Fassler, and a cast of HoF collaborators familiar and new including Perfect Pussy’s Meredith Graves, Shamir, Denitia, and EULA’s Alyse Lamb, the group steps back into the darkest time line of our present reality after tripping out in an ambient post-apocalyptic freak out with last year’s club banger Last Chance EP. The pathways through which they travel are still treacherous as ever, but with blood-soaked shoes, sweaty bass lines, brass spirits, and synthetic doppelgangers for human emotion, they’re able to create a chic antidote for corrupt modern connections.

28. Oneohtrix Point Never - Age Of [Warp Records]

Oneohtrix Point Never breaks free of self-imposed insularity through collaboration and his own version of mass pop deconstruction to create “nightmare ballads” on Age Of. It is – along with the performance art installation that accompanies it – simultaneously Daniel Lopatin’s most ambitiously detailed, yet cohesively-defined auditory experiences since breaking through in 2010 with the melodic MIDI warping of Returnal, as it reconvenes into a pattern of brain teasing pleasure that had until now, been marked for deletion in his virtual garden. Dismantling pop cliches into a morbid art form has always been Oneohtrix Point Never’s M.O., but never has Lopatin challenged them so heavily as he has on Age Of by putting what’s obvious in front of listeners, then ripping off its outer layers of gloss to reveal what makes them work. Whenever these songs feel as though they are encroaching upon a natural climax, OPNs pulls the hook away from our ears, as if to tantalize our reward ever so softly while testing the natural habits of our cerebral mechanics no doubt shaped by larger machines in the process. Now, that’s a scary thought...

27. Ava Luna - Moon 2 [Western Vinyl]

Moon 2 is the perfect title for where Ava Luna are today as artists. It’s their new phase – One in which the NYC art pop band shed the skin of the term “collective,“ and instead join tentacles to become a fully collaborative species as varied as their backgrounds are. That LP 5 is their most streamlined effort to date may come as an even bigger surprise given the latter detail, as each member of the five-piece has spent the interim since 2015′s Infinite House expressing themselves mostly on their own. It could be, however, that in learning to stand on their own feet and flexing these creative muscles that Ava Luna has become stronger as a unit, as stylistic cohesion is threaded through the album from the moment it creaks into infinite space. Gravity-free vocals and ambient waves glide through Felicia Douglass’ hushed breaths and silk-covered runs, Becca Kaufmann bumps energy into the alien disco, while guitarist Carlos Hernandez’ and the band’s rhythm of Julian Fader and Ethan Bassford maintain its physically kinetic geometry. In this phase, there’s no one who can do it all with the fashion and finesse like they do.

26. Gouge Away - Burnt Sugar [Deathwish Inc.]

Maybe more exciting than the arrival of their breakout Burnt Sugar is that Gouge Away are really only getting started. At its core level is vocalist Christina Michelle who lives and breathes her every word, be it gnarling in daily anxiety and frustrations with hope, or controlling the chaos with a sung seance. Since their debut ,Dies, she and her bandmates have evolved into a more intentional force with in their use of emotional intensity as Mick Ford’s guitars remain razor-sharp when need be, but conceal themselves in a softer casing that rolls down your spine before tearing into your skin. Burnt Sugar also gets some of its charred flavoring by pillaging the grime and grunge of ‘90s post-hardcore and noise influence, as Tyler Forsythe’s bass lines dent and wobbly through tension without resistance as Tommy Cantwell’s drums find a gnarled groove between the dark crevices they leave in their quake. Its brimming with so much possibility as to where they can go tomorrow, but for now, leaves a lasting bittersweet taste in your mouth.

25. Hop Along - Bark Your Head Off, Dog [Saddle Creek]

Bark Your Head Off, Dog finds Hop Along mastering the art of embellishing rock with finer detail. While it may require additional lengths to let it sink in, it’s definitively the Philly band’s most ambitious effort to succeed on all fronts.Their latest sonic evolution continues to bristle with rawness, yet hooks are deeply entwined in intricate chord progressions while Frances Quinlan’s storytelling has become a thing on the scale of an American classic in literature as she continues to observe the mundane of everyday living with deep existential analysis. The quartet’s overall sound reflects that need to uphold that imagery with compositions just as tangled in the ornate, and demanding greater patience on the part of the listener to hear exactly where knotted guitars untie themselves and fray into choruses, or where elastic, funky footwork begins to effortless flow with ease into melody. Bark Your Head Off, Dog is not just something to behold because of its creative maturation, but a fun practice in dissecting and digesting music (and subsequently, the world around us) that rewards the experience with resonating tunefulness hidden in between.

24. Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love [ANTI-]

Deafheaven’s fourth studio effort Ordinary Corrupt Human Love shares many of the same organs and bone structures as its ancestors, but it’s a different animal altogether. It’s Deafheaven putting every one of the eccentricities they have nourished in their sound out there from the start into the wilderness, free to roam and form an album that embodies the humanity within their metal machine. Piano interludes, dreamy soundscapes indebted to slocore and indie rock traditionalism alongside guest vocal apparitions both weave even further layers to an an already ornate tapestry of scorched earth black metal and post rock, if maybe adding a touch of fragility to Clarke’s core existentialism. He ruminates plaintive thoughts on nature, aging, and empathy with a poetic grandeur that makes no apologies for being transparently earnest. That earnestness in all facets is what differentiates Ordinary Corrupt Human Love from any other Deafheaven album, or any other album that seers together a heavy heart and inner peace for that matter.

23. Janelle Monáe - Dirty Computer [Epic Music / Sony Records / Wonderland Arts Society]

Dirty Computer bares the familiar signatures of Janelle Monáe’s past work – a rollout full bonkers visuals overlaying forward-thinking production that sets synthetic futurisms on an asteroid collision with the funky torchbearing of the Purple One’s legacy – yet it doubles down on radio-equipped hooks and choruses grounded like no other effort she’s set forth. There’s a full reveal of the political being personal in that aspect, as the album celebrates Monáe’s “PYNK”-themed coming out party as a pansexual woman of color, redefining the “Crazy, Classic, Life” of the modern American dream in the process. Her freedom roar, be it sung with sex and smoothness as she exudes in album bangers ”Make Me Feel” and “Screwed” or rapped with sharpened poise on ”Django Jane” is limitless is strength. Monáe’s star power dwarfs even the legends of tomorrow accompanying her journey back to Earth, be it Brian Wilson’s cosmic harmonies on its title track, or the electric empower-ade made with Pharrell Williams on “I Got the Juice”. Now that she’s graced us within arm’s length, it’s time we start recognizing a world where everything revolves around Janelle Monáe’s universal message to be just as you are.

22. The 1975 - A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships [Dirty Hit / Interscope Records]

On their third LP A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships, it’s here where millennial melody makers the 1975 come into their own with their most actualized commentary on modern connection and pop music. Frontperson Matty Healy’s guides the dialogue through astute observations as a voyeur as well as his own ugly overshares for public consumption The album especially glorifies the latter in its arrangement. Like the dopamine rushes and exhaustion of life’s sudden highs and unexpected lows, A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships is pieced together in an unpredictable path of emotions in mind as it plays out. The listen combs through a post-Burial static plane, Auto-tuned trap pop, power ballad bombast, and even pulling off some oddity moments of loungey jazz. There’s a lot to not like about how our world is revolving, with the only optimism echoed here is the acknowledgement that we’re suffering through the darkest timeline together. For a generation whose attention’s spans are at peak deficit, hashtaggable plugs and genre-hopping get that message across through production-perfect content baiting reach.

21. Kamasi Washington - Heaven and Earth [Young Turks]

The year’s biggest adventure through the sonic cosmos comes by way of Kamasi Washington who takes you further out than you expected with Heaven and Earth, his latest grandeur display of avant jazz adventures composed with the special powers of the video game superheroes he invokes when aligning big brass purists and less discriminatory crossover crowd on the same universal plane. The double LP featuring 16 tracks average in 10 minutes in length each may as well be a quadruple one by today’s standards, though it also finds the Los Angeles saxophonist and his band in top form with cohesively connecting the dots in his experimentally sound genre reconstructions that encompasses free wheeling eruptions and percussive winks into the realms of rock, soul, and R&B. Heaven and Earth mediates his world of the weird and technically proficient with out current pop climate changes, and there’s more than enough sonic sight seeing in this journey to keep your senses in awe.

20. Iceage - Beyondless [Matador Records]

What began as an exorcise in violence, nihilism, and anxiety personified in the least suspecting of scenes within Denmark’s desolate DIY basements has evolved into a meticulous exercise in punk polyglot experimentation on Beyondless. Here, Iceage weaponize gothic purveyance to subdue their louder abrasions, but not necessarily their ability to confront the dark with any softer hesitation for a grander stage. The Danish quartet’s fourth studio effort is a new peak culmination in their insatiable desire to further themselves well beyond the limits previously drawn in their musical sculpture. The way they brandish danger and bleak existentialism in tandem with their bootsy grit is sexed up for pomp and glam through its incorporation of strong brass winds and cantankerous jazzy fits. Elias Rønnenfelt has written himself a charismatic stage persona to match – Consumed by the theatrics of a rock god and the Devil himself at once. Their unholy ritual has been completed and satisfies all heathens.

19. Tomberlin - At Weddings [Saddle Creek]

Sarah Beth Tomberlin was born to a strict Baptist household where her father was a minister, and she honed her craft as a songwriter through praise hymnals sung at Sunday sermons. She wasn’t allowed to discover a musical world outside of that sphere until she began secretly sneaking Bright Eyes CDs into her possession during her formative years. At Weddings, her debut full-length, is her way of forging her own path in a post-theist world that gives her – as she puts it on its opener “Any Other Way” – a sudden feeling that she doesn’t “have a place.” There’s more to her story than just existential queries hollowed out in a negative space where her voice, rendered in a delicate, yet devastatingly beautiful coat of reverb, echoes out as vast as the Midwestern fields she was raised. While At Weddings doesn’t conclude with her finding that place in the world she can finally rest comfort in, the ellipses it leaves listeners with is awe-striking in the way it makes you wonder right alongside Tomberlin where her path will lead her in the end.

18. Speedy Ortiz - Twerp Verse [Carpark Records]

Ever since they arrived on the scene as fresh-faced college grads of the school of indie rock with their 2013 debut full-length Major Arcana, the combination of singer Sadie Dupuis’ particular prose and she and her Speedy Ortiz bandmates’ higher level learning of idiosyncratic songwriting has been the thing that has made them stand out in a pack in the scene’s new wave of artists heavily influenced by the thinking person’s underground. With 2015′s Foil Deer, they proved that they had not only studied up on every book inside the indie rock laureates' libraries, and knew how to put that knowledge to proper use in writing their own chapters within it for today’s impressionable minds, but their latest effort Twerp Verse is a selfless endeavor devoid of needing to prove anything to anyone. Instead, it’s the quartet’s most outspoken commentary on modern day righteousness made all the more digestible with some new tricks from Dupuis’ second degree in spooky pop experimentation gained during a semester abroad under her sad13 guise. Speedy cram a lot to chew on here about common decency, but rest assured, these are choruses that will stick to your brain as much as the corrective lessons for a better society do, too.

17. Daughters - You Won’t Get What You Want [Ipecac Recordings]

Before going on indefinite hiatus in 2010, Daughters helped carve out a particular sound that stylized post- and grindcore scenes in the mid-2000s. Elastic guitars, intense drumming fits, and a frontperson in Alexis S.F. Marshall who sounded like an unhinged cog thrown in the machine whose job was to cause malfunctions at every turn was their modus operandi. Through sealed rifts, Daughters have since reunited with its most recent incarnation of Marshall, founding drummer Jon Syverson, rhythm guitarist Nicholas Andrew Sadler and Samuel M. Walker on bass, yet they're not the same band we heard on their return effort You Won’t Get What You Want. The Providence quartet’s fourth studio effort makes a concentrated effort in reshaping the outlines of their hardened history in an industrial fusion of human parts and robot arms melding into one alongside sea-sawing droning, smoldering blues, and gothic epics. Just as Daughters’ past indefinite hiatus status made no promises, You Won’t Get What You Want feels like they’ve entering a new phase where the unease in uncertainty fuels the thrill ride to defy any expectation/

16. Wild Pink - Yolk In the Fur [Tiny Engines]

Despite having cut their teeth in the Brooklyn indie scene these last several years, Wild Pink don’t sound so much like your standard guitar-chugging city dwellers on their breakout sophomore effort Yolk In the Fur. The trio of John Ross, TC Brownell and Dan Keegan have grown beyond the concrete jungle and ventured into an equally captivating impression here of ‘80s synth-bleeding, Americana-influenced rock that has made storytelling sentiment glimmer like a borealis in the way it has for the album’s kindred spirit Tom Petty and more recently, the modern day journeys of the War On Drugs. Yolk In the Fur has its own handwriting to share, however, with Ross emoting existential philosophies while gazing through the monotony of the every day and millennial melancholia. It’s there where Wild Pink transcend beyond subways and human-saturated streets and into the vast fields, rivers and star-lit skies -- Their own version of escapism becoming contagious.

15. Camp Cope - How to Socialise & Make Friends [Run for Cover Records]

Speaking to Camp Cope’s How to Socialise & Make Friends is a daunting task, especially from this end seeing that any cisgender straight male isn’t the most qualified to do the kind of heavy lifting these Melbourne indie rockers’ do here on their sophomore effort. The listen protests and shouts just as much as it lets out heavy sighs as singer Georgia Maq airs her grievances, be it via acid tongue or a higher road empathy. Her targets include gendered double-standards and an exhaustion with cultured misogyny in every facet of her daily life. She sings from both the unjust experiences as the frontperson of an all-women band within a male-dominated punk scene and as a humanist, with dudes behaving badly toward both in and out of those circles. The sound Camp Cope wage war with words with burns with an anti-authoritarian DIY spirit and emotive frustration equivocally, as Maq’s unfurling guitars over Kelly-Dawn Hellmrich and Sarah Thompson’s steady rhythm clear a path for her to break the patriarchy, if even by throwing just a single stone into every glass ceiling at a time.

14. Snail Mail - Lush [Matador Records]

Lindsey Jordan knows the roller coaster emotions of being young better than most indie rock songwriters out there right now, perhaps because she’s still figuring out a way to deal with them. With her debut album Lush, the 19-year-old’s creative outlet Snail Mail invites the entire world into the thick of her Tiny Little Corner of Anywhere where the doldrums of suburban living collide with teenage romance and its ensuing anguish in a manner where even a minor happening in heartache is enough substance to soundtrack a turning point in the coming-of-age experience. How she does so is through a stronghold in sharp earnestness wise beyond her years with lyrical specificity wrapped up in slowburning melancholic hooks that might otherwise suggest what ‘90s indie rock might have sounded like had it been put to her eloquent pen in the present. Yet, Lush is through and through about living in the moment, growing pains and all, and Snail Mail is in no hurry to shake the ride.

13. Vince Staples - FM! [Def Jam]

FM! -- an 11 track, 23-minute-long project from Vince Staples -- extends the Long Beach M.C.’s streak of success through an endless summer party meant for momentary escapism. The listen is no different than tuning into the long-running Los Angeles hip-hop station 92.3 and its show, Big Boy’s Neighborhood, that serves to bind together Staples’ latest duality of disenfranchised disparity against fame and prosperity over a series of intros, skits, interludes and, to greater effect, a group of Cali-minded guest features that would fit in effortlessly next to the radio fodder Staples’ cult rap skills usually sit on the outside of. It’s a current snapshot of the Vince Staples of today without forgetting where he came from, and he gets a few hits in that way by dropping ugly realities into an otherwise mostly white Coachella crowd-pleasing playlist where tough-as-nails honesty and ear-softening commercial pleasure find a middle ground. FM!’s fun from the outside looking in, yet a complex commentary when you stick your head in closer, and nothing less than we’ve come to expect from rap’s best thinkers.

12. Vein - errorzone [Closed Casket Activities)

The Greater Boston legacy of heavy has long been a place where hardcore and metal collide with an awesome vigor, and that lineage continues to expand beyond the Baystate today with Vein, a group of Merrimack Valley thrashers who are amplifying the intensity of the scene’s groundbreakers in the likes of Cave In, Converge and American Nightmare, and bare down the void with their own young nihilistic bulldozing. Their debut full-length errorzone uses the framework laid before them and fuses its pieces into a sound of apocalyptic proportions where human adrenaline and natural forces smolder into the quintet’s firestorm to form a death-wielding vehicle. The end result tears shit apart in every which way. Lead screamer Anthony DiDio is a wrecking ball on his own two feet, but backed by Vein’s seismic riffs and stone pummeling rhythmic core, errorzone is unapologetically harsh in seeing that everything burns to the ground. Taking into account the current state of the world, that might just be what this place needs.

11. Beach House - 7 [Sub Pop]

With 7, Beach House’s singular sound has settled on a narrative that has no concrete objective in sight, but rather, an unharnessed exploration into the unknown of what possibilities may manifest. That it’s their most curiously daring listen in a career that’s already been defined by surprises is a fete most veteran indie rock acts these days should be envious to achieve themselves, and for that, Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally can thank their lucky intuition for guiding their spirit in a directionless path. 7′s specific magical power is their ability to transform that darkness into an unsuspecting beauty, as the album oft confronts such instances fit for these tumultuous times by embracing the ability for empathy and love to grow out of that trauma, capturing the free-fall from resistance into giving in with a lightness. Explorations with psychedelic hues and cosmic lights in their smoldering, vapory dream-pop soothe even the bleakest questions that float through the timeline of an otherwise frightening reality. Beach House, in their present formless existence, endure in its brave embrace of it.

10. Earl Sweatshirt - Some Rap Songs [Tan Cressida / Columbia Records]

Aside from being a grade A wordsmith, Earl Sweatshirt stands out among other rappers from the younger era thanks to his ability to connect with audiences by talking to real life context in ways that never look like fashion statements or image crafting. It’s neither a Drake-ism or an emo rap algorithm ploy -- It’s honest, ugly reality checks that have gone toe to toe with anxiety, depression and death talk without glamorizing any of them as a welcome lifestyle. Last we’d heard from him were the incisive cuts levied through weed clouds and paranoia on 2015′s I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside, yet, like many of his Odd Future alumni, Earl has grown out of his tumultuous teens, and with Some Rap Songs, the 24-year-old cult hero is beginning to piece together life’s puzzles clearly -- at least through prose. Throughout the listen, his rap style transcends any comparison to what his peers are creating as he delves into an abstract collage of background noise made of layered beats, samples of voices from the outside, and a control over his own as a hookless wonder. With the smoke clearing from the room, it turns out that the avant direction fits Earl Sweatshirt perfectly.

9. Robyn - Honey [Konichiwa Records]

In the 8 year absence releasing her ultimate legacy-cementing effort Body Talk, Robyn’s footprint on the pop universe has become permanently entangled in the DNA of its modern current. Now that she’s made her return on her sixth full-length effort Honey, however, we’re not just given everything we could hope for in a Robyn album – But something from a different creative pop genius than the one we last danced our worries away with. Experiences with grief and loss have changed the shape of the way she breaks our hearts and teaches us how to put them back together this time around, as Honey brings different facets of light into her singular sound to separate itself from similar flavors. Bright, shimmering whirls of synths and soft caresses sweep up a familiar warmth as any other Robyn endorphin rush, but glamorous house parties, funked up bass lines and breezy lite R&B turn the corner toward a different perspective in the healing process. Though we never truly know what pains life may bring our way, Robyn reminds us that there’s always a way back to the sweet stuff with Honey.

8. Pusha-T - DAYTONA [Def Jam / G.O.O.D. Music]

Stretches of ominous silence in between releases have worked to Pusha-T’s advantage in massaging his work into a hard craft. Ever since his 2013 debut My Name Is My Name and 2015′s followup King Push – Darkest Before Dawn: The Prelude, the pursuit of perfection has equated to him needing to waste less time to get people talking about what he’s saying. His X-acto knife precision consistently coupled with an ultra modern beat design never ceases to cut right where it needs to, and with his latest album DAYTONA, we get 7 tracks in just a little over 20 minutes where the Delaware son savors his words for deep impact. What’s left in its wake is a proper torching of the entire hip-hop landscape with his long shadow and knife-like flow that gave 2018 one of the year’s most talked about rap beefs. Darker moments surrounding loss of friends and the double-edged sword of fame swallow the soul whole into itself as well, and in aligning himself with Kanye West’s post-Pablo production (basically, the only good thing ‘Ye gave music this year...), the reign of King Push remains unrivaled.

7. Soccer Mommy - Clean [Fat Possum Records]

The opening moments from Soccer Mommy breakout Clean don’t idealize romantic expectations, so don’t get your hopes up that the rest of the album is going to find its way to some kind of happy ending either. Clean is the result of an ongoing bedroom-born lullaby inward that had been slowly forming the outlines of Sophie Allison’s persona over the years, with her debut full-length transforming early broad brush strokes into more detailed ones through a rickety walk of structurally-sound acoustic strums, hints of twinklecore in her alternative slow burn, and a healthy measure of studio trickery that puts a stamp with Allison’s name all over her confessionals. There’s an intense relatability to her storytelling as well as her underdog status of being on the losing end of relationships that makes her work resonate deep within the every-person, and they’re all necessary, too. Unlike all of the girls who she isn’t we meet here on Clean, owning up to her differences is what makes Allison sound realer than the rest.

6. Cardi B - Invasion of Privacy [Atlantic Records]

Social media-assisted personal brands may seemingly grow overnight these days, but one thing that won’t ever change is how they’re only a piece of the puzzle – if at all – in guaranteeing a successful rap career. If you were expecting Cardi B’s debut album Invasion of Privacy to change any rules of the game, it doesn’t over-promise in that regard, but it’s still an assured first step that includes Cardi delivering on her end of the it with a solid performance of real life character work backed by a roundtable of reliable modern production crafted by the likes of Boi-1da, Murda Beatz and Benny Blanco. It’s an early indication that proves she knows herself better than most others have in this position when it came to making money moves with natural instinct, and it’s perhaps the biggest reason why Cardi B managed to parlay her hustle from behind a smart phone into a #1 dream come true while her detractors keep bloating streaming algorithms in hopes of guaranteeing themselves a cheap hit.

5. Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour [Mercury Nashville]

With Golden Hour, Kacey Musgraves continues to be just as brave enough to color outside the lines of country with her honesty as she does in the palette she paints with as well. Disco-inflicted pop crossovers, cosmic countrypolitan, psychedelic steel pedaling, a refracted spectrum of ‘70s style classic rock piano balladry worthy of Elton’s rhinestoned co-sign, and in between everything, Golden Hour shining with that simple purity of fully lucid designs Musgraves has always brought to the table in dripping honey-combed acoustics into melancholia and pop that bring even a basic approach to songwriting into widescreen view. The album amounts to something akin to an actual rainbow for that matter – All colors vivid and unique in their own way, but when they collect together, they suggest something much more, be it in its wonders of life, love, and enjoying every second of it in the present with your senses filled with them.

4. American Pleasure Club - A Whole Fucking Lifetime of This [Run for Cover Records]

At the end of 2017, Sam Ray ditched the Teen Suicide moniker in favor of something more empathetic and conscious by redubbing his punk band American Pleasure Club. After years of making music inspired by depressive fits, substance abuse, and an aggressively nihilistic world view, he’s realigned his sound as well thanks to sobriety and finding domestic bliss with fellow musician Kitty Ray. With that, the band’s third proper album A Whole Fucking Lifetime of This is where Sam Ray has adulted beyond the bitter teenage malaise of his past while giving his loyalty of listeners every reason to continue working toward defining happiness in their own messy lives. That’s mirrored in a juxtaposition of vibes throughout the listen, varied in mood and style as vast as bedroom pop melancholia, pop-punk jitters, wallowing alternative waves, and hazy R&B that circle back to a big picture of coherency. Its a soundscape Ray has tinkered with tirelessly since the project’s inception, and has now found a fulfilling sweet spot in American Pleasure Club’s sound thanks to acknowledgement the reality of a love in a world that will never truly be a personal heaven nor hell.

3. Mitski - Be the Cowboy [Dead Oceans]

Mitski’s fifth album Be the Cowboy is brimming with ideas in brevity, yet it never falls short of articulating them with considered judgement that proves Mitski Miyawaki is in full control of her directive wheel. To give of herself even the slightest glimpse into the 27-year-old songwriter’s psyche through song is her gift to the Earth, with her pen blurring a universal connection between the personal and creation by mining its many striations of disconnect. Her other half on the surface level is often framed like a lover, though she’s hinted that sometimes the relationships that break her heart the most are those not reciprocated in her commitment to her work. Be the Cowboy finds her acting out every role in the story inseparably through the bombast of indie rockisms,an incorporation of songwriting worlds both traditional and modern that render new benchmarks of perfection for her timeless prose and even disco-pop, making it all the more difficult to decipher, yet that’s the point: They’re all designed as self-reflections given equal moments to be honored in her dark and light.

2. Low - Double Negative [Sub Pop]

Slowcore innovators Low have evolved far beyond the patient wonder of their music in several different styles over their storied 25-year career as a band, but nothing in their catalog is anything like their latest studio effort, Double Negative. The listen answers the question of what may exist of the Duluth trio if you were to destroy in their sound all the natural beauty that has endured gracefully these last three decades, and attempts to reconstruct it by fragment, particle by particle. That’s done intentionally, as the band holds a shattered mirror up to the world and reflects it onto themselves, as LP 12 embraces their most abrasive traits fearlessly through deconstructed and corruptly digitized instrumentation sucked into the vacuous production of. B.J. Burton, go-to producer at Bon Iver’s April Base home studio. The uncertainty in Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker vocals, while remaining tender all the way through, surface anxieties felt by many humans amid the disarray. We don’t know what tomorrow brings, though Double Negative captures the present in all its brokenness flawlessly.

1. Turnstile - Time & Space [Roadrunner Records]

Pull the 25-minute-long sprint that is Turnstile’s major label debut Time & Space apart by its guts, and you’ll hear that it’s so many other things than just a record that is guaranteed to insight a lot of free-falling bodies flying off stages wherever they take this record live. Even as a screamer, Brendan Yates is rather Svengali in his anti-et. al resistance, feeding his existential crisis into grungy despair and plunging down that rabbit hole lined in hybridized metal. Guitarists Brady Ebert and Pat McCrory alongside bassist Franz Lyon and drummer Daniel Fang are integral to controlling the listen between a slam dance and a hardcore meditation, meeting every signature call to the pit with a far out reverberation such as “Moon”, a lush, hazy pop-punker of a track. If there’s a single takeaway from Turnstile’s proper introduction beyond the DIY spaces they came through, it’s that the Baltimore quintet are prepared to take risks to reshape hardcore as something more than just punk’s harder edge of sound. It’s one continuous nonstop feeling, and one that’s bringing the whole scene into an entirely different level of being.

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noiseartists · 6 years

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Italian Shoegaze and Dream Pop quick guide, Vol. 1

This time we'd like to introduce you to the Italian multi-colored panorama with a selection of recommended bands orbiting the shoegaze planet. Better known for its classical music tradition, nowadays Italy holds surprises for noise lovers. Shoegaze, dream pop and noise pop are no longer sort of 90s memorabilia nor rare birds here: with Slowdive, MBV and Ride reuniting in recent years Italian tour dates were always included. And while this resulted in increased fan bases and attention from independent media - with new specialized webzines and web radios coming to light, the truth is Italy has been speaking the language of loud guitars and bleached vocals for some time now. While in the last decade a few notable veterans have already been making their way in the alternative world, especially over the border, newbies have come to light and settled a real Italogaze scene.

For both, the drive to fit in the international music scene means staying unique, contemporary and somehow having sharp, recognizable roots at the same time. Drawing inspiration from different genres such as new wave, psych, electronic, grunge, each artist tends to blend their common ground - shoegaze classics and noise essentials - with original tastes.

What they all share is the need to communicate (with no actual words, like any shoegaze singer would) at high volumes, both vertically and horizontally. That is, the listener might find an emotional connection with an ambiguous time-line that ranges from vintage sound scapes to modern arrangements, or he could even find himself in another place.

Lost in a metaphysical space, you can't just tell if you're floating under the surface of a rough sea, if you just ended up in a desolate valley with no-one but a cello, if you're looking for your answers in a remote galaxy or maybe you just got caught in a powerful, colourful vortex. Either way, you'd probably forget to be in your room and, we're sure, never guess to be under the warm sun of Italy.

You might have already taken a look at our articles on the talented Clustersun and Stella Diana, now let’s continue our journey with a short overview of recommended Italogaze bands. More bands and more steps in this sonic trip are coming soon!

STELLA DIANA

Arguably one of the most long-lived bands in the Italian shoegaze scene, Stella Diana is a multifaceted project founded in 1998 by guitarist Dario Torre, who has been making a big name for himself in Italogaze and international alternative circles as a gifted composer as well as an enthusiastic supporter of shoegaze and alternative genres made in Italy.

Along with his musical career he currently runs the web radio Shoegazin’ your waves, through which he is promoting popular and emerging Italian artists.

Stella Diana has released 5 albums in total showing dramatical changes in terms of line-up, sound shaping, inspirations and even lyrics language.

Their early works were characterised by sharp compositions, echoing vocals and a post-punk texture of sound and song structures. The very choice of Italian language was not obstructive, as is shown by a long-time fan base from all over the world.

Actually the band collected hundreds of European tour dates, which has made them better known abroad than in their homeland.

However, 2015 was the turning point in Stella Diana’s history. Their fifth release, titled Nitocris and produced by renowned sound-engineer Marc Joy, marked a decisive shift towards modern shoegaze tones. Thanks to its richness obtained by skilfully combining walls of sound with dark moods, the album has been widely acclaimed.

Stella Diana’s upcoming work will be titled 57, due out May 25. Its launching single Der Sandmann suggests new patterns and evolution: it is a dreamy, minimalist track featuring a cello that evokes a sense of isolation.

Despite such variety, what has been unchanged throughout Stella Diana discography insofar is an obvious passion for 80s and 90s sounds, their taste in creating melodies, hazy atmospheres and hypnotic bass and drums.

Take your time to read our interview and in-depth collaboration with the band to learn more about them.

Stella Diana’s line-up is:

Dario Torre - vocals & guitar

Giacomo Salzano - bass

Giulio Grasso - drums

Stella Diana’s music work is:

Supporto colore, album, released 2007

Gemini, album, released 2011

41 61 93, album, released February 2014

Alhena, EP, released December 2015

Nitocris, album, released April 2016

Non-original, yet great material include:

Leave them all behind (Ride cover), digital single, from VA - Leave Them All Behind - A Tribute To Ride, released March 16, 2015 by The Blog That Celebrates Itself Records

Lazarus (Boo Radleys cover), digital single, from VA - We Are All BOO´s, released April 14, 2016 by The Blog That Celebrates Itself Records

Mild Confusion (Tamaryn acoustic cover), digital single, released April 2017

Nothing Natural (Lush cover), digital single, from VA - Lovelife, A Homage To Lush, released March 1, 2018 by The Blog That Celebrates Itself

HUMAN COLONIES

Blurred dreamy cloudy fuzzy something, and that’s all. Despite such a brief self-introduction on social media, it seems that a little more has been written on Human Colonies since their debut in 2013.

With their last release, Midnight screamer, the band has gained popularity and after some premieres circulating on webzines and specialized blogs, the album has been welcomed by Rolling Stone Italia as a groovy-yet-shoegazey job well done.

Human Colonies music is all about directness and simplicity, tons of fuzz, gentle vocals and a powerful rythmic section. Their favourite artists include Dinosaur Jr., My Bloody Valentine, The Pixies, And you will know us by the trail of dead, Melvins, Sparklehorse.

Their sound is constantly moving through noise, dream pop, psychedelic, all mixed with a genuine lo-fi / punk attitude.

Human Colonies are currently touring Italy, if you happen to be around we recommend you not to miss one of their energetic gigs.

If you’re curious about the history behind this shy and bubbly power trio, we invite you to read more on our dedicated article coming soon.

Human Colonies’ line-up is:

Giuseppe Mazzoni - guitar, vocals

Sara Telesca - bass, backing vocals

Riccardo Cotti - drums and percussions

Human Colonies’ music work is:

Demo/EP, demo, released August 2013

Calvary, album, released 2015

Big Domino Vortex, EP, released January 2017

Midnight Screamer, album, released April 2018

Non-original, yet great material include:

Breather (Chapterhouse cover), single, released March 2016. The song is off Treasures, A Tribute to Chapterhouse, a compilation of tracks by various artists appearing on The Blog that Celebrates Itself

Porcelain (Ulrika Spacek cover), single, released July 2017. The track is included in La Femme Noir, A Tribute Compilation to Zanne 2017.

REV REV REV

Rev Rev Rev is an outstanding example of Italogaze bands that have become famous internationally. Since 2013 they have been touring across continental Europe and UK, as we can read in their detailed self-introduction on the web.

In their own words, Rev Rev Rev’s sound is influenced by first-wave shoegaze, as well as psychedelic rock, re-metabolizing these elements into a loud, woozy, fuzz-driven context. Their live sets comprise kaleidoscopic video projections waving with music, and the use of self-constructed stomp boxes, producing weird sounds.

Positive feedback so far include national and international recognition from national and international press and web zines (Clash music, Sounds better with reverb, Drowned in sound). Various singles were included in shoegaze compilations and sometimes crossed the border of alternative circles – notably, their 2014 song “Catching a buzz” was featured on Steve Lamacq's show on BBC 6 Radio.

The band took part in important events such as Cosmosis Festival 2016 in Manchester (headlined by The Jesus and Mary Chain, Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Raveonettes, just to name a few), followed by a nearly one-year tour of Europe.

The latter was a promotional tour for their last album, titled Des fleurs magiques bourdonnaient, a mesmerising work in which classical dreamy atmospheres blend with echoes of 70s psychedelia, desert rock and noise.

Rev Rev Rev’s line-up is:

Laura Iacuzio – vocals, bass, guitar

Sebastian Lugli – guitar

Andrea Dall'Omo – bass

Greta Benatti – drums

Rev Rev Rev’s music work is:

Rev Rev Rev, album, released October 2013

Catching a buzz, digital single EP, released October 2014

Des fleurs magiques bourdonnaient, album, released February 2016. The album went shortly sold-out and a repress was released in July.

Non-original, yet great material include:

Polar bear (Ride cover), released March 2015. The song is included in the tribute compilation to Ride Leave them all behind, appearing on The Blog That Blog That Celebrates Itself

TIGER! SHIT! TIGER! TIGER!

Punk-ish vocal melodies, guitars playing loud and straight, catchy rhythms: you can meet this power trio halfway between central Italy and USA.

Since their foundation in 2007 Tiger! Shit! Tiger! Tiger! has racked up hundreds of live dates in and out of Italy, bringing along their mighty sound.

USA has in fact become a second home-country as the band showcased its sharp first album (titled Be Yr Own Shit) in several successful performances overseas. They participated in New York CMJ Festival in 2008 and 2009, then reached Austin to take part in famous South By Southwest (SXSW) Festival (2010-2011).

Critical and public acclaim was so great that two tracks have been featured in Anglo-American movie soundtracks.

While TSTT have obviously lived and breathed American indie rock, noise and post-punk legends (Sonic Youth, Fugazi, Dinosaur jr., Sebadoh, Eric's Trip, Built to Spill, Modest Mouse, Pavement, Polvo, No Age, Thee Oh Sees are all quoted as their faves), an evolution in sound and arrangements can be seen in their last releases. Although their rebel heart has been kept, Forever Young and later Corners display slightly different sensibility, various approaches to song structure and a refined attitude towards harmony and vocals that won’t disappoint old and new noisy fans.

Tiger! Shit! Tiger! Tiger! line-up is:

Diego Masciotti - guitar, vocals

Giovanna Vedovati - bass

Nicola Vedovati - drums

Tiger! Shit! Tiger! Tiger! music work is:

Be Yr Own Shit, album, released 2008. The song The Architects of Despaired has been featured in Lee Madsen’s “Hated” OST (2010)

Whispers, EP, released 2010. The title-track is included in Richard Naylon’s “Music Land World” OST (2013)

Forever Young, album, released 2013

Corners, album, released 2017

MY INVISIBLE FRIEND

On the dreamy side of Italogaze we find this promising band formed in 2014 by four guys who grew up with Spiritualized, My Bloody Valentine and Cocteau Twins.

Started off with quite psychedelic, round, dark atmospheres, in 2016 My Invisible Friend have been shifting into a more mellow, classical dream pop attitude while maintaining their beloved psych-vibes alive.

As a result, their last release is nothing short of an elegant ode to entrancing sounds – that means fuzzy bass lines, liquid, bite guitar tones and a female/male voice taking us on a cathartic trip to harmony.

After touring Italy and France, in September 2017 the band left a cryptic message on their Facebook page. Their future is unclear, as we understand. We just hope this won’t mean a split – Italogaze needs more of their livid colours and dreaming voice.

My Invisible Friend’s line-up is:

Annalisa Rizzardi - bass, vocals

Cristian Macchia - guitars, vocals

Joe - guitars, vocals

Valentina Baldrighi - drums

My Invisible Friend’s music work is:

S/T EP, released September 2016

Green Sight, digital single, released 2015

My Invisible Friend, EP, released 2015

ELECTRIC FLOOR

Electric Floor is an Italian duo formed in 2013. After experimenting with different alt-rock genres, the band settled as a shoegaze/new-synthwave project.

Their EP Fader is highly recommended to those who are longing for 80s tones and moods. With upfront dramatic voice, dance-y rhythm section and tons of dark synths, it clearly shows the duo’s love for new wave and electronic classics – both vintage and modern.

At the same time, however, typical distortion and reverb make the guitar sound closer to post-punk and shoegaze, creating a particular feature.

Actually for a year now Electric Floor’s release has been going well within the Italogaze world, as it received positive feedback from national and international reviewers, singles were featured in compilations and broadcast by various web radios.

The duo has recently launched their new single "I made it up" (out May 2018), which confirms their post-punk attitude to song-crafting combined with a deep interest in dance beats and atmospheres.

Electric Floor’s line-up is:

Emanuele Chiarelli – vocals, guitars, programming

Simone Costantino De Luca – programming, synth

Their music work is:

Fader, EP, released March 2017

I made it up, digital single, included in Chiaroscuro. Italogaze 2018, a compilation by various artists released May 2018 on Seashell Records and Vipchoyo Sound Factory.

OUTRO

We hope you enjoyed this first volume of our quick guide to Italogaze. Look at the blog for the next ones.

#italogaze #Shoegaze #Dream pop #Guide

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liugeaux · 3 years

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Ranking the Roach

I’m gonna to skip the verbose explanation on why I think it’s important to rank these albums, and elect to just jump in. Here’s my definitive ranking of all the Papa Roach albums.

10. Old Friends From Young Years 1997

We kick it off with the Roach’s indie debut. Old Friends From Young Years was recorded before scoring a record deal and like most independent debuts it’s messy and raw. The band had several EPs pop up before and after this release, but to keep this as clean as possible we’re just doing major albums. There’s not much more to say here, let’s keep it moving.

9. F.E.A.R. 2015

FEAR has a lot to offer, a great theme, some cool collabs, and a tight 10 song track list. Songs like “Face Everything and Rise”, and “Gravity” are classics in the Papa Roach library, but overall it fails to keep the momentum up for the entire album, and to not be able to do that through 10 tracks is not a good sign.

8. Who Do You Trust? 2019

When P. Roach tries new things we get mixed results. Who Do You Trust is quite a departure from the Mainstream Rock albums they had produced in the ten years prior. The programing and pop feel just didn’t hit as hard as I feel it could have. The result was an album that doesn’t quite feel like it knows what it wants to be. My prediction is that Who Do You Trust will end up being the awkward stepping stone to their next classic album, much like lovehatetragedy was.

7. lovehatetragedy 2002

Speaking of lovehatetragedy...Papa Roach’s second album suffers from a really bad case of the “sophomore slump”. Technically not their sophomore album, but it is their second major label album and first album coming off the incredible success of Infest. lovehatetragedy starts the band’s transition into a more straight-forward rock act, by dropping most of the nu-metal trapping that are so prevalent on Infest. Many of the songs feel forced and on the nose. Even the lead single “She Loves Me Not”, is far from P. Roach’s best work. The brightest bulb on this album is “Decompression Period”, a lumbering, emotional song that’s as big as it is personal. It could be the best song Jacoby Shaddix has ever written, but we aren’t litigating that today.

6. Metamorphosis 2009

Metamorphosis has the unfortunate task of following The Paramour Sessions, a fantastic and potentially career defining album. The good news is that despite the album’s name, sonically, it shares its sound with its predecessor. Metamorphosis’ biggest crime is not taking enough chances. “Lifeline” has become one of the bands signature songs and “Had Enough” is the type of anthem every modern rock band strives to write. Ultimately, Metamorphosis is forgettable and that’s why it’s not higher on this lst.

5. The Connection 2012

As the first P Roach album after leaving Geffen, The Connection has a lot of seminal Roach songs and sounds. Creatively, the band pulled every item out of its bag of tricks and put together yet another solid release, but much like Metamorphosis, “solid” is not good enough to top this list. What differentiates this album from others of this era, is that it doesn’t really try anything new. For better or worse the three albums after this go places The Connection isn’t comfortable going. On the other hand, The Connection is the first of the albums on this list that I can recommend whole-hog. Track to track, The Connection is easy to listen to and holds up almost 10 years later.

4.5. Time for Annihilation: On the Record & On the Road 2010

I’m putting this one at 4.5 because technically it’s not a full studio album. It’s basically a new EP coupled with a live album on one disc with 5 new songs and 9 live tracks. Although the new content is short, every single new song is an absolute banger. 4 of the 5 songs ended up being singles and “Kick in the Teeth”, “One Track Mind”, and “No Matter What” represent some of their best work.

4. Crooked Teeth 2017

Crooked Teeth is the best “modern” P. Roach album. It’s a tightly produced, well-paced, piece with fresh ideas and sounds. Everything from the straightforward rocking of “Crooked Teeth” to the introspective collaboration with Rapper Machine Gun Kelly on “Sunrise Trailer Park” feels new. The journey through this album never gets stale, and before you know it, you’re already into the bonus tracks and live extras. My only complaint is the song “Periscope” featuring Sklar Grey. By itself, its fine, but coming just 2 years after the mind blowing track “Gravity” featuring Maria Brink, “Periscope” feels like a failed attempt to catch lighting in a bottle twice. Sonically, Crooked Teeth lives in a pocket somewhere between Metamorphosis and Who Do You Trust?. The former being an album that relies too much on predictable P. Roach tropes and the later being an often unwelcomed departure from the bands roots. Crooked Teeth successfully took new ideas and made them successful and believable as a Papa Roach product.

3. Getting Away With Murder 2004

There’s no easy way to say it, GAWM had to save Papa Roach’s career. lovehatetragedy, did not resonate the way Infest did, and if they didn’t hit hard with GAWM, P Roach could have easily become “that Last Resort band”. What this album ended up being was a complete reset of what a Papa Roach album could be. The songs were heavier, more personal, and more dynamic. Where the band had previously only dabbled in straight forward anthems (with mixed results), GAWM has multiple fully formed epic anthems that are arena-ready, and infectiously singable. Tracks like “Getting Away With Murder”, “ Scars”, “Be Free”, and “Not Listening” are perfect examples of tracks that both fit the landscape of the rock music of that era, and still had a unique marketable polish to them. The abandoning of Rap on GAWM was welcome, and made the release feel more mature than I’m sure Shaddix even intended. It also allowed him to finally stand out as an underrated vocalist in the genre. This was exactly the album P Roach needed at this point in their career and it set a high bar for future releases.

2. Infest 2000

Papa Roach will be playing the songs from Infest for the rest of their career, and they will likely always be the songs that will garner the most applause, so it would be hard to put Infest very low on this list. However, even without factoring in the built-in audience these tracks have, Infest is a seminal album of an era of Rock that doesn’t a fair shake. The dour lyrics and agro delivery of much of the album is both a sign of the times and one of the album’s strengths. Tracks like “Broken Home”, “Between Angels and Insects”, and the monumental hit “Last Resort” resonated with fans like few songs of the era did. Even if you ignore these three hits there are still a handful of perfectly crafted genre masterpieces, that could have been genuine hits for other bands thirsty to get some of that nu-money. Infest is what P Roach will be remembered for 50 years from now, and despite it not being their best album, I think I’m ok with it.

1. The Paramour Sessions 2006

Papa Roach has always been about incremental changes. Each album is informed by the previous one with small changes made here and there to make each collection of songs special. Arguably, the band’s career can be broken up into 3 or 4 different eras. The Paramour Sessions is the best album from their best era. They took what they learned from GAWM about stadium ready anthems and tightened the melodies even more to produce standouts like “Alive”, “The World Around You”, “Forever”, and “Time is Running Out”. As a collection of songs TPS is the best complete set, and “Forever” is a top three Papa Roach track. Here’s the part of the write-up where I’m supposed to say this album is a turning point, or is transcendent, or hyper-influential, but I’m not going to. It’s none of those things. TPS is a somewhat by-the-numbers P. Roach album that stands out because of the quality of its tracks and sleekness of its production. Sometimes it doesn’t have to be deeper than that. It may not be the album that will live forever (no pun intended), but it’s hands down their best.

#papa roach

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dontlookdown · 3 years

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Nick’s Favourite Music of 2020

You hear that?

It’s the sound of “2020 is Fucking Dead”. Good riddance.

Now, we all know that the problems we faced throughout this year aren’t going to suddenly disappear because the number’s rolled over. For instance, I live in the UK, and things have been downhill going for us since the Olympics. But we can take a moment to feel happy, relieved even, that we made it through this Hell Year. Things are still unequivocally fucked, yes, but right now I’m explicitly telling you to give yourself a moment to take a breath. We could all use one!

Let us instead focus on the music of 2020, and how good it was. Like, really good! On the whole, it was good enough that the simple act of re-listening to the songs I’d collected over the past twelve months got me fired up to write about them at length. Considering the opposite thing happened to me last year, I may well be the only person in the world who had a better time in 2020 than they did in 2019 (at least, in this one specific aspect of it).

My self-imposed rules (20 songs, no repeating artists) mean that there’s always a collection of worthy tracks that didn’t quite make the cut. Here are those honourable mentions:

Daði Freyr – “Think About Things”

When this Icelandic banger came to our attention in May, I was so certain (so, so, certain) that it would make the cut for the final list. And it was number one with a bullet for a long time. “Song of the summer,” I would have said, had you asked. Turns out there was a lot of bouncy energetic pop music to be heard in 2020, and “Think About Things” just doesn’t take flight in the same majestic way that other songs did. It is still one of the best songs of the year though (let’s say the 22nd), and absolutely would’ve/should’ve (delete as appropriate) won Eurovision this year.

Dirty Projectors – 5EPs

What an embarrassment of riches. Dirty Projectors released five four-track EPs over the months, each written and fronted by a different member of the band. The collected result was a little scattershot, but one of the most rewarding LPs of the year. Come for the classic DP sound of “Overlord”, “Lose Your Love” and “Searching Spirit”. Stay for the likes of “No Studying”, a perfect tribute to the sound of Stereolab.

Future Islands – As Long As You Are

Future Islands were another personal favourite of mine who were firing on all cylinders this year. “For Sure” and “Thrill” made the shortlist for inclusion. So did 50 other songs. To my dismay, I had to draw the line somewhere.

IDLES – “Reigns”

I can’t explain what happened to my IDLES appetite this year. I was ready for more, after the cannon blast of Joy as an Act of Resistance in 2018, and early single “Mr. Motivator” was instantly added to my running playlist (I know, I know). But, somehow, by the time Ultra Mono came out, I wasn’t feeling it. Maybe they cast their net too wide. Maybe it’s because the protest music of 2020 had to come from a different source (we’ll talk about it later). Maybe it’s because other bands found a way to be less on-the-nose with their socio-political messaging (we’ll talk about that too). Whatever the reason, this album disappointed. But there were still moments that thrilled, like the way singer Joe Talbot turned the word “reigns” into a raging torpedo of a battle cry.

Jay Electronica – A Written Testimony

One of the singles on A Written Testimony was released in 2010. That’s how long we’ve been waiting for a debut album from Jay Electronica. The perception of some is that we’re still waiting: the album features so many contributions by Jay-Z that it may as well be classified as a collaboration in the vein of Watch the Throne. Semantics aside, it’s a hell of an album. One of the freshest-sounding and most fun-to-listen-to rap releases I’ve heard in years.

Laura Marling – “Fortune”

I’ve hinted at this before, and I’ll state it clearly now: Laura Marling is this generation’s Joni Mitchell. She keeps delivering on past potential.

Jessie Ware – “Save a Kiss”

Another unfortunate victim of 2020 having so much great dance-pop music. Jessie Ware’s big disco comeback was everything I wanted from her, and it wasn’t even the year’s best big disco comeback!

Masterpiece Machine – “Rotting Fruit”

My list-making process begins by listening to every track I have in my iTunes from the last year on shuffle. It’s a way of resetting my confirmation bias, I guess. Sometimes songs I had built up in my head as “important” fail to stand out in a crowd. And sometimes monsters like this bulldoze everything in their path. RIP Riley Gale.

Nap Eyes – “Mark Zuckerberg”

A jangly oddity I couldn’t quite figure out in the end. Musically wholesome, with some of the weirdest lyrics of the year.

Nation of Language – Introduction, Presence

The best New Order album of the year.

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – “Cars in Space”

The 21st best song of the year. 2020 also had way too much to offer in the way of great indie rock. The post-chorus bit in this song where the horns hit is an all-timer.

Romy – “Lifetime”

The xx singer/guitarist is making a solo move. I can’t wait to hear more, especially if it’s as good as this.

Sufjan Stevens – The Ascension

I’ve done this dance with Sufjan before, when The Age of Adz dropped. These more electronic albums of his take time to properly settle in my brain. I’ll come around eventually.

Will Butler – “Surrender”

We all needed pick-me-ups during 2020. This was one of my musical ones.

Nobuo Uematsu et al - Final Fantasy VII Remake Soundtrack

I was not expecting to love the FF7 remake (part one of ????) as much as I did. I came to original too late to really appreciate it, and I hadn’t been interested in any of the more recent games in the series. Turns out all they needed to do was make a really good game. Who knew? Nobuo Uematsu’s compositions have always been at the heart of the series. He’s arguably the world’s most famous video game composer specifically due to his Final Fantasy work. As such, I’ve heard his work from VII a lot. Too much, I thought, for it to have any emotional impact on me. Boy, was I wrong. The orchestral arrangements of familiar themes are weaponised nostalgia, yanking at my heartstrings like nothing else. Meanwhile, the revamped boss theme fucking RIPS. Even taken away from the context of the game, the score loses none of its power. Astonishing work.

Neil Cicierega – Mouth Dreams

Neil “Lemon Demon” Cicierega’s ‘Mouth’ mash-up series have been a constant source of joy, even before this year. The latest instalment was no exception. The element of surprise is key to enjoying these albums (“This song with that song? I didn’t see that coming”), so I’ll just point out that they’re all free to download, and you really should experience them for yourself.

Okay! As I mentioned above, the final list has twenty songs, and I’ll be writing about each of them in their own dedicated post, one a day. For those that want to listen ahead to what I’ll be covering in-depth, here’s a Spotify playlist of the final twenty.

If you fancy revisiting my posts from previous years, they can all be found here using the “best of 20xx” tag (just retype the appropriate year). See you tomorrow for the first instalment!

#best of 2020 #Daði Freyr #dirty projectors #future islands #idles #jay electronica #laura marling #jessie ware #masterpiece machine #nap eyes #nation of language #rolling blackouts coastal fever #romy #sufjan stevens #will butler #nobuo uematsu #neil cicierega #music

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melodymgill49801 · 4 years

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RIP China Chalet, Manhattan's Greatest Queer Nightlife Utopia

When DJ and nightlife entrepreneur Ty Sunderland created his flagship gay party, he envisioned stripper poles—an homage to the music video for Britney Spears’ 2007 single “Gimme More.” “But no strip club was going to let a gay promoter come in on a Friday night in New York City,” Sunderland recalls. “I asked if I could install stripper poles on the dance floor at China Chalet, and they said, ‘Yeah, totally.’ That’s how Heaven on Earth started.”

One of the most beloved queer events in New York City in recent years, Heaven on Earth would also rank among the last of the great parties thrown at China Chalet, which shuttered last month in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Opened in 1975, the two-story Cantonese dim sum restaurant was the last of its kind in many ways. For one, it was one of the only remaining full-service, multi-room dim sum banquet halls in the Wall Street area, but most famously, it was one of only DIY party venues in Manhattan where New York City nightlife could be everything it’s been promised to be since Studio 54: liberating, inclusive, and spontaneous.

It’s unclear when, exactly, China Chalet started moonlighting as a nightclub, even to those who worked there toward the end. (Following the venue’s closing, owner Keith Ng has declined to comment for press.) Alex Kellogg, the venue’s party booker at the time it closed, says he’d heard of parties rumored to have been thrown there by Madonna in the 80s, but that the venue’s most prolific era began in the late 2000s. In the last decade, the venue was visited by the likes of the Olsen twins, Timothée Chalamet, and Jay-Z—plus, pretty much any young person who went out in New York City.

“Anyone could come, and you could do anything you wanted,” Kellogg recalls of his first impression of the space, at a party thrown by _Sex Magazine_’s Asher Penn in 2013. “There was no one specific ‘genre’ of people. It wasn’t like when you went to a Bushwick party and you didn’t look DIY techno, so they didn’t accept you. Skaters could show up in ripped jeans, and then Alexander Wang could walk in behind them. And they’d be on the same level. Or you’d see Chloe Sevigny there, dressed in a bucket T-shirt and jeans drinking whiskey at the bar.”

Photo by Megan Walschlager

The end of the aughts was an inflection point for nightlife. As the moment of downtown stalwarts like Beatrice Inn and Bungalow 8 began to fade in 2009 amid the backdrop of the financial crisis, the city’s cool kids decamped to various new stomping grounds, from old-school holdovers like Indochine and Lucien to warehouses in far Brooklyn. In Manhattan, temporary pop-up arrangements helped party-throwers find loopholes around the city’s draconian nightlife laws.

By 2011, the New York Times waxed of China Chalet’s instantly recognizable “chintzy floral carpet and pagoda paintings” in a trend feature on fashion-and-art–scene pop-up clubs, which also included Madame Wong’s, an exclusive party once hosted in the Chinatown establishment Golden Unicorn. The same year, The Observer documented an indie film after-party at China Chalet with an attendance of “ex-pat jet setters, debauched hipsters, and local lowlifes.” And the fashion house Opening Ceremony collaborated with homegrown psych rock band Gang Gang Dance for an album release party at the restaurant.

Curtis Everett Pawley, musician and co-founder of the party-label 38 NYC, recalls seeing China Chalet for the first time at that Opening Ceremony party, noting that in the mid 2010s, the venue evolved from a fashion insider hideaway to a mainstay for local electronic music fans. In 2014, Pawley met Kellogg at the China Chalet while the latter was hosting a New York City offshoot of London’s experimental JACK댄스 party featuring performers like Doss and Stadium.

“I don’t know how to describe the scene at JACK댄스—it was just a lot of people from the internet,” Pawley says. “But it was distinctly different from a warehouse party and other electronic DJ-oriented underground stuff that happened in Brooklyn. There was a Manhattan contingency that didn’t really venture into Brooklyn or maybe weren’t even into electronic music. The crowd was more diverse.”

Part of this broad appeal had to do with the functional and physical layout of the space. For first-timers, China Chalet would reveal itself one part at a time, starting with a steep entry stairwell that led into a main dining room, for lounging and gossipping, and finally through a mirrored hallway onto a packed dance floor—which was notoriously known to shake under the weight of hundreds jumping in unison. Then, there was the venue's far-flung location, which only contributed to its off-the-grid allure. And of course, there was the marvelously relaxed policy on cigarettes and other typical club contraband.

“There was an air of freedom that everyone just instantly knew,” Pawley explains. “If you had even been there once, you understood it. It was a weird oasis away from the typical nightlife setting. Our parties were all over the map—it wasn’t ever pure techno or house. We didn’t want to overly aestheticize them to curate any certain crowd.”

Photo by Tom Keelan

In the late 2010s, such a blank canvas would attract an increasingly diverse cast of revelers, spurred on by a new guard of social media-powered creative voices in the city. Nightlife photographer Megan Walschlager recalls visiting China Chalet for the first time to attend Club Glam, the fashion it-kid affair launched in 2016 by the powerhouse collective of DJ-artist Dese Escobar and siblings, celebrity stylist Kyle Luu, and influencer Fiffany Luu. Escobar told the Times earlier this year that the trio wanted to create a party that was distinctly “post-identity, meaning that it’s not strictly queer or straight, young or old.”

“Club Glam was iconic—I remember they threw a ‘granny ball’ and people over 30 got in free, which I always found wonderfully funny,” Walschlager says, adding that there was a built-in sense of community at Glam. “People felt more at home at China Chalet because the venue let party planners use the space as their canvas, so everyone felt very relaxed. Security was pretty chill, and it was easy to get a drink at the bar, so it felt more communal.”

During its three-year reign, Club Glam was a pioneer in its own right, offering a fresh approach to nightlife that united identities and industries without conforming to their norms. Themed events were announced just a few days ahead of time, and lines frequently rounded the block. The party’s organic aggregation of interdisciplinary creatives often draws comparison to the long-gone clubs of New York City nightlife’s storied past.

The venue’s reputation in the queer community was further mainstreamed by the 2017 launch of Ty Sunderland’s Heaven on Earth, which drew the likes of RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Aquaria, Balmain creative director Olivier Rousteing, and transgender pop icon Kim Petras. (As Sunderland retells it, the latter once famously grabbed the mic for an impromptu performance of her latest single.) The party would continue through 2020, with its last iteration taking place in February.

To this day, Sunderland credits the owner, Keith Ng, for his open-mindedness in allowing the party to thrive. “From 10 p.m. to midnight, we got to live our stripper-pole fantasies—no questions asked,” Sunderland says. “There were 400 gay men there on a weekend night. That’s hard to find in New York City in most places unless they’re LGBT establishments.” Kellogg, who first introduced Sunderand to Ng, adds of the China Chalet staff: “The coat-check girls would say, ‘Oh my god—there are so many pretty boys running around.’ They loved it.”

Photo by Serichai Traipoom

For young queer people, including queer people of color, Sunderland’s party filled a much-needed void in gay nightlife far from the insularity of Hell’s Kitchen. Sunderland’s hosts were predominantly performers, artists, and partygoers of marginalized identities, explains drag queen Ruby Fox, who was known to captivate the dance floor at Heaven on Earth with an acrobatic routine between two stripper poles.

“The artistry I push out into the world comes from the emotions I pull from people around me,” Fox says. “At China Chalet, in such close quarters, it was really exhilarating because I’m getting so much energy and so many positive vibes, whether that was spiritual or just a brain thing. But I would feel the wavelengths off of people to the point where I’d be like the Energizer bunny.”

As COVID-19 brings an untimely end to tens of thousands of restaurants and bars across America, it’s hard not to feel as though a chapter of nightlife has closed. And while restaurants and other food purveyors are struggling to lobby for assistance, nightlife proprietors have even fewer options to obtain funding. That’s not to mention the thousands of freelancers and gig workers—performers, DJs, and party planners—who make their living by creating these spaces for community and expression.

“It's funny—when quarantine hit, all of us who work in live music were all stressed about how our venues were going to stay open,” Pawley remembers. “I remember thinking, ‘At least we’ll always have China Chalet.’ That’s why its closing is such a hard blow. I really thought it would be the last thing standing.”

But while China Chalet deserved a more fitting end—maybe one final party to commemorate its legacy—Pawley says what made it special is the creativity it fostered and the connections it created. “To this day, I met so many of my closest friends at China Chalet,” he says. “We’re all still friends. I really believe all the people in New York City are what made the parties great. I don’t think that energy will die.”

via VICE US - Munchies VICE US - Munchies via Mom's Kitchen Recipe Network Mom's Kitchen Recipe Network

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carolinechanson97838 · 4 years

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RIP China Chalet, Manhattan's Greatest Queer Nightlife Utopia