Susanna Hoffs - Weak With Love

 Ray Shasho: Who were some of the music artists that influenced you while growing up? 

Susanna Hoffs: “There were so-so many! Starting in the 60’s, I would say The Beatles being the toppermost of the poppermost for me. (All laughing) So many bands … The Byrds, the Buffalo Springfield, The Mamas and the Papas, The Kinks, The Zombies, along with a lot of the great female singers of that time and period like …Petula Clark, Lulu, Dusty Springfield, Dionne Warwick … my mom had all the Burt Bacharach/Hal David music, many people covered their songs but we had all those Dionne Warwick records. To this day, those Burt Bacharach/Hal David songs move me so much. I love singing them; I got the chance to sing “Alfie” in the ‘Austin Powers’ movie and that was so much fun.”
“In the 70’s, singer/songwriters like Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Carole King, as well as bands like Yes. At the end of the 70’s, where the whole Punk Rock revolution happened musically, I got very into those groups at a time when it started to be an idea in my head. I thought, wow, I could do this, especially after hearing a band like The Ramones because they were like Punk/Pop and I knew those same three or four chords. I could probably get an electric guitar and change my Folk-like sound to a Ramones style treatment of a Pop song.”
“Blondie, the Talking Heads, Television out of New York were all influences, and that whole scene. Bands like Television lead me back to bands like The Velvet Underground, who I kind of never knew about when I was just a kid. I had heard of Andy Warhol, my mom had been a painter and later became a screenwriter, but she started out as a teacher, so I knew a lot about the art scene of the 60’s through my parents. But I didn’t really know about The Velvet Underground’s music until the late 70’s when I rediscovered all of that.”
“But yea, even like Nick Lowe, early Elvis Costello … it was a really interesting time. The fact that I could go to local clubs and see the Talking Heads at the Whiskey A Go Go, probably on their first tour, the early Go-Go’s shows, The Undertones, The Jam, Blondie … it was a great time!” 

Ray Shasho: Susanna, I’m reluctant to admit this, but I never knew that “Manic Monday” was written by Prince … how did that transpire?

Susanna Hoffs: “Oh no? Wow! We were recording at the time with Producer David Kahne and working with David and Peggy Leonard who were recording engineers and worked a lot with Prince. Somehow Peggy was working on Princes’ record at The Sound Factory on Sunset Boulevard and her husband David was working on our record at the sister studio Sunset Sound & Sound Factory. So we got word that Prince had some songs and wanted me to come over to The Sound Factory. So I drove over there, picked up a cassette, it had “Manic Monday” on it and we recorded it. I think Prince had seen the “Hero Takes A Fall” video on MTV and that’s how he kind of discovered The Bangles. Then he came to at least two shows and performed with us onstage. I think he may have watched us the first time, the second time performed with us, then performed with us again in San Francisco. So he was like an early fan of the band. It turned out to be an incredible thing for us because we were very much like the rest of the world … in awe of Prince, his talent, and magnificent stage presence. I really learned a lot watching him and the gift of “Manic Monday” was unexpected, it turned out to be so amazing because it worked its way up the charts, peaked at #2, and it really got our name out there.”

From: https://www.classicrockhereandnow.com/2014/06/susanna-hoffs-interview-bangles.html

Timechild - This Too Will Pass

Timechild is massive and organic Heavy Rock from Copenhagen, Denmark. The band’s soundscape is made up of a powerful and present lead vocal, characteristic twin guitars, and atmospheric vocal harmonies, which together create their unique Scandinavian expression.
Timechild was formed in 2020 by four seasoned musicians from different corners of Denmark. With extensive past experience in a number of former and existing Danish Rock and Metal bands, the members had already crossed paths on both Danish and international stages. When the opportunity arose, they decided to unite their musical experiences and visions and created Timechild.
The debut album was written and recorded during the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic, which paralysed the Danish and international music industry. However, this silence gave the band time to jointly develop their common sound and expression. The vision from the start was to show how Heavy Rock can continue to challenge and surprise audiences even in 2021. Although the foundation of the band’s sound universe is clearly laid by the Rock giants of the past, Timechild’s inspiration is drawn from across both time and genres.
The opportunity to dive into the music history of past decades, and through this define one’s own sound, is one of the greatest privileges that today’s musicians have at their disposal. We can learn from the past without being backward-looking or unoriginal and we can be relevant and innovative without having to define a new genre.
This same mindset also applies to Timechild’s lyrics. The title of the upcoming debut album “And Yet It Moves” is, according to legend, the last phrase uttered by physicist and philosopher Galileo Galilei after the Vatican forced him to recant his scientific belief, that the Earth moves around the sun and not the other way around. It is precisely this human search for the purpose of our own existence and the struggle to elevate ourselves above the laws of nature, that are recurring themes in the album’s textual universe.  From: https://bloodynews.ro/en/2021/11/12/timechild-debut-album-and-yet-it-moves-out-today/

Red Sky July - Kings of Better Things

Think Country: Please introduce yourself. Please introduce your position in the band, where you’re originally from and where you are based now.

AM: I’m Ally McErlaine, founder of the band, along with my wife Shelly. I play guitar in the group, along with mandolins, banjos and anything with strings.

TC: What types of music did you hear around the house growing up? What did you enjoy listening to on your own?

AM: My dad was really into Bob Dylan and rock ‘n’ roll music, my mum loved The Beatles and The Beach Boys. I heard a lot of country at the family Christmas parties. Tammy Wynette, Johnny Cash, etc. I had phases of punk, metal, Bowie, so it was always very varied.

TC: How did you get your start playing and/or singing?

AM: I started playing guitar with my dad, he was a folk player so he taught me my first chords.

TC: How did Red Sky July get started?

AM: Red Sky July started as a side project for me and Shelly. I was in the group Texas and she was in Alisha’s Attic. We originally teamed up with Floridian Charity Hair. Charity has since moved back to the US, so we asked an old friend Haley Glennie-Smith to join.

TC: Tell me about the upcoming release. Give as many details as you can, especially your contribution to the project.

AM: Our new album, Misty Morning, is the first with Haley. It was recorded mostly at our home studio in London. We have Joe Hammill from the band Cattle & Cane guesting on “Utah.” Other important contributions were Rory Carlile, who did the mixing, and some bass by Ryan Small and Ross Hamilton.

TC: What are your outside activities when you aren’t doing music?

AM: We do a lot of writing with other artists and also a lot of TV and film scoring. Recent film was My Old School, the Scottish film starring Alan Cumming. We did a cover of “My Old School” by Steely Dan, featuring Lulu on vocals.

Think Country: Please introduce yourself. Please include your position in the band, where you’re originally from and where you are based now.

Shelly Poole: I’m Shelly, singer-songwriter and producer with Red Sky July.

TC: What types of music did you hear around the house growing up? What did you enjoy listening to on your own?

SP: When I was growing up we used to listen to things like the Eagles and Neil Diamond in my dad’s old Mustang; very much American-based music. My dad was in a band in the 60s (he was the lead singer) of Brian Poole and The Tremeloes, so we had music around the house all the time, lots of bands and lots of rock and roll!

TC: How did you get your start playing and/or singing?

SP: It took me a long time to get any kind of a start in music. I was doing it from when I left school at 16 and I got my first deal at 25. Before that, my sister and I were playing in clubs and pubs, etc. We were sending out demos to record companies and getting lots of rejections. We finally met a lawyer who took our demo tape to one of the people we’d already written to, and we got offered a deal straight away with Howard Berman at Mercury Records. 

TC: How did Red Sky July get started?

SP: Red Sky July got started by just Ally writing a piece of music on his guitar and me singing a song over the top. I wanted a harmony on it, so my friend came over to sing for us (our previous band member Charity Hair), and we loved it so much we started the band on the spot. The song was “Morning Song” and it was on the first album.

TC: Tell me about the upcoming release. Give as many details as you can, especially your contribution to the project.

SP: On this album it took a while to get it into place. We wrote songs, we scrapped them. We wrote some more, we scrapped them. Every time I produced them up (and it took ages) and we still scrapped them. There was something not quite right about the feel of it. I can’t say why, and even though I’m really trying to think of an answer, there isn’t one. It just didn’t feel right. This final one feels like it came together in the right way. The songs were written from the heart; we tried to use different instrumentation and not really think about what you should use for certain genres like Americana. We used our really good friend Rory (Carlile), who we worked with on the first album, to mix.

TC: Ultimate goal for Red Sky July? Is this the band we will always see or are there plans to add any new members? Special venues you’d like to play?

SP: The ultimate goal for Red Sky July is that we want to continue to play our songs to people. We will probably make another album next year and we just want to keep singing and playing together, as it’s fun. It’s a very good release from the day job of composing for TV and sync. We really enjoy the art of producing music like this too, and we don’t get much of a chance to outside of Red Sky July. So when we all get together to do what we love, we will keep it going in whatever capacity we can.

From: https://thinkcountrymusic.com/music/q-a-with-uk-trio-red-sky-july-new-album-misty-morning-set-to-release-february-28th/

The Book of Knots - Obituary For The Future

The Book of Knots is an avant-prog band founded by Matthias Bossi (Skeleton Key, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum) Joel Hamilton (Shiner, Battle Of Mice, Sparklehorse, Elvis Costello, Unsane) and Tony Maimone (Pere Ubu, Frank Black, They Might Be Giants), in the spring of 2003 in Brooklyn, New York based on The Ashley Book of Knots. At the outset, the band was originally an excuse to write songs for their friends, but took a more serious turn when Mauro Arrambide of Archlight Records stepped in and offered to release their unique music. They were joined by vionlinist/vocalist Carla Kihlstedt (Tin Hat, 2 Foot Yard, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Cosa Brava) about halfway through the recording of their self-titled debut, which solidified them into a quartet. It was decided that the band would release three records, the first being an ode to the rotting seaside towns of Matthias and Joel's youth, the second a tribute to the American rust-belt, and the third, a praising of all things aeronautical. Their Music is a mixture of avant-garde jazz, folk, prog and experimental rock. From: https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=5567 

The Swan Chorus - The Hilary Step

The Swan Chorus are a six-piece progressive rock group of seasoned musicians from the Liverpool area. Formed as a result of the reunion of the song-writing duo of David Knowles (keyboards) and Colin McKay in 2015, they soon recruited a number of talented local musicians including vocalist John Wilkinson and bassist Dave Jones (both members of the popular Genesis-tribute band, 'Mama' and more recently Tim Bowness's fictitious band project, Moonshot). Along with Peter Dover on drums and Les Norton and Eddie Devlin on guitars they released their eponymous debut back in 2018. Like so many hard-working progressive rock bands, it is so often the case that quality music releases, that deserve a wider audience, just 'fall through the cracks.' I was personally unaware of their existence until a fellow TPA reviewer asked me to have a listen to them a week or so ago. I'm very pleased I did! 
Over 10 tracks, including several of an extended length, you get some very enjoyable prog-pop to dive into. Music that is both vibrant, melodic, accessible, and song-oriented; yet also instrumentally progressive. Powerful, confident vocals and a deeper lyrical content throughout. This is infectious prog that needs to be spread to a wider audience. Describing their style and sound is not straightforward, as the band have created their own soundscape, whilst signaling their influences across their diverse collection of tracks. There is, not surprisingly, a strong later-period Genesis feel, largely related to John's impressive Collins-like vocals and David's melodic, later-period, Banks-style compositional structure. However, David is not afraid to add a layer of classic-era keyboards and synthesizers when appropriate. 
The Hilary Step starts the album with an upbeat, chiming rhythm and pop sensibilities, yet David's symphonic keyboard chords add nice proggy touches (especially towards the end) and John's clear vocals send out a hard- hitting statement of American politics over a mountaineering analogy. "When I get to the bottom, I am never going up again!" Light and shade for sure.  From:  https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=11120

Nadine Shah - Topless Mother

ZUZANNA CZEMIER: You’ve said that “Evil” was inspired by Philip Larkin’s poem “Days.” What does this poem mean to you?

NADINE SHAH: It’s a really short poem, it’s great. Within just two stanzas he sums up all the problems with people’s attitudes towards mental health or anybody who lives outside the norm. He says, “Brings the priest and the doctor / In their long coats / Running over the fields,” which means that religion and medicine and society are going to judge you. It’s where [“Evil”] came from, but also my own and my friends’ experiences with mental illness.

CZEMIER: There is a verse in the poem that goes, “Where can we live but days?” which can be interpreted as a comment on the mundane but necessary cycle of life. I was wondering if you’re the type of person who tries to escape the quotidian or conversely, do you find a sort of peace in routine?

SHAH: It’s a mixture of both. The industry I work in isn’t necessarily the norm. It’s a very different routine to a lot of other people and a lot of my time is spent in isolation. I will be in a studio or in my bedroom by myself, working. My friends and my boyfriend all have “proper” jobs, if that’s what you want to call them. I hate being called lazy, so when everybody gets up at half seven in the morning, I’m up at the same time. Everyone goes to work and I’ll do a few hours of writing, then I’ll mess about for a bit and come back to it. By the time I go home I’m done. I think it’s really good to keep that kind of a routine with writing. I find that when I don’t do that, it’s really hard to get back into that headspace of writing.

CZEMIER: Where there any specific musical influences behind Holiday Destination, or do you prefer to draw inspiration from other mediums, like poetry?

SHAH: What happens when I’m making a new album is I try not to listen to music that’s coming out at the time. I turn off the radio and don’t read any music blogs, because I tend to get really distracted by new music. When I hear it, I think, “Should I be doing that?” But I listened to Talking Heads a lot; they influenced the sound of this album. Because [in Holiday Destination] the topic is quite heavy, politically, I wanted the music to be energetic and upbeat. Even though it’s a political message, I wanted it not to be dour; I wanted it to inspire hope. 

CZEMIER: The album cover photo is pretty clear reference to photos from Iraq and Syria that we see on the news a lot, which ties into the theme of Holiday Destination. Can you say where it’s from? 

SHAH: It was taken in Gaza by a guy named Christian Stephen, who is a war correspondent. He’s been in war since he was 17 and he’s 22 now. He’s such a brilliant mind. I met him at a party and we were talking about his work and the new album. We met later and I asked if I could use one of his images for the album cover. He showed me a whole bunch of them and most, I’d say 98 percent of them, were too painful. I couldn’t use them. They were the saddest, most harrowing images I’ve ever seen. What this particular image had is that it instills hope. There’s this young boy, who’s 11 years old at maximum, and he’s standing in this building, which has been destroyed by war. The front facade of the building is missing and you see him standing on the top floor, kind of triumphant, and flipping a peace sign. Despite all the travesty that’s going on around him, every disgusting thing that this boy must have seen, he’s still standing there flipping a peace sign.  

I think that’s what I wanted to do this this album: despite all of this happening you want to instill hope. We’ve been talking about the Syrian refugee crisis a lot, in the news in the U.K. and possibly the U.S., but it isn’t the only refugee crisis that is happening at this minute. There’s something like 22 million refugees in the world. There are people from Eritrea, Afghanistan, Syria, and so many other places where people are living in complete turmoil. It was important to me that we showed a place other than Syria, which is why we chose that image. 

CZEMIER: In Fast Food, [Shah’s 2015 album,] you sung about mental illness, whereas in Holiday Destination you focus on the current global refugee crisis. Does immersing yourself in heavy subjects like these take any sort of emotional toll on you? 

SHAH: It was something that one of my older brothers pointed out years ago when my first album came out. He was saying that watching me perform—I’d get really emotional on stage—was really uncomfortable for an older brother. He almost wanted to step in and tell the audience, “Go home, there’s nothing to see here, I’m taking her home and we’re having a cup of tea. People shouldn’t be watching this.” But I think I have an on-stage persona that is very different from how I am now on the phone or even between songs. Sometimes I’ll finish performing and tell a joke, because you have this moment of realization when you’re like, “Oh shit, I just hung out my dirty laundry for everyone to see.” You’ve exposed yourself and it’s a moment of embarrassment almost, because you’ve revealed so much. But it’s been six or seven years of me doing this and I’ve started to find techniques of how to live a healthier life within this crazy industry. I think I’ve got a pretty good balance now. 

From: https://www.interviewmagazine.com/music/nadine-shah

The Electric Flag - Another Country

When guitarist Mike Bloomfield left the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in 1967, he wanted to form a band that combined blues, rock, soul, psychedelia, and jazz into something new. He knew for sure that he wanted a horn section in the band, which he began forming with a couple of friends, keyboardist Barry Goldberg and singer Nick Gravenites. Although the three were all veterans of the Chicago music scene, the group based itself in the San Francisco area. Bloomfield, Goldberg, and Gravenites were in turn bolstered by a rhythm section of bassist Harvey Brooks (who had played on some of Bob Dylan's mid-'60s records) and drummer Buddy Miles; on top of them came a horn section. 
Oddly, before even playing any live concerts, Electric Flag recorded the soundtrack for the 1967 psychedelic exploitation movie The Trip, which afforded them the opportunity to experiment with some of their ideas without much pressure. Their live debut was at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival (although they didn't make it into the documentary film of the event; they do appear in the bonus footage on the DVD version), but their first proper studio album didn't come out until the spring of 1968. A Long Time Comin' predated Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago's big-band rock sound, mixing it as they did with jazz-rock but also soul-rock-psychedelia that sometimes (but not always) employed prominent horns.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/electric-flag-mn0000135829#biography

Buckingham Nicks - Crying In The Night

"Crying in the Night's about an actress; her name is Lesley Ann Warren and she did some movie that was very a-la-Gunsmoke Kitty, you know, that type of thing, and I wrote this song about her. And many years later when I did the video for ‘Stand Back,’ and Jeffrey Hornaday choreographed it, they were going together and he, in fact, introduced me to her and I told her about it, that this song had been written about her. So this was a song that was really written about a certain person, and if you know who she is and whenever you hear ‘Crying in the Night’ will know that that’s what I wrote it about. And she thought it was pretty neat and I thought it was pretty neat and I thought it was pretty neat to get to tell her that I wrote it about her.”
Although Stevie has never said what the movie was called, her description appears to match the character of “Mae” in the ABC TV movie The Daughters of Joshua Cabe (1972), in which Lesley Ann Warren played a “come-on girl,” or a prostitute. “Crying the Night” (backed with “Stephanie”) was the lead single from Buckingham Nicks.  From: https://stevienicks.info/music/buckingham-nicks-1973/crying-in-the-night/ 

The Band - Ain't No More Cane

"Ain't No More Cane on This Brazos" is a traditional prison work song of the Southern United States. The title refers to work assigned to prisoners sentenced to hard labor in Texas. The labor involved cutting sugar cane along the banks of the Brazos River, where many of the state's prison farms were located in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 
It has been recorded by Alan Lomax on his 1958 recording Texas Folk Songs Sung by Alan Lomax as "Ain't No More Cane on This Brazis", Odetta, Lonnie Donegan, the Limeliters on their album 14 14K Folksongs (1963), Son Volt on the album A Retrospective: 1995-2000, and The Band on the album Across the Great Divide. Bob Dylan also performed the song live in the early 1960s[1] and his version is on multiple bootleg recordings taken from The Gaslight Cafe. An extensive set of lyrics to the song, as sung by inmates of Central State Farm near Houston, Texas, appears in folklorist John Lomax's book American Ballads and Folk Songs, originally published in 1934. 
The song is sometimes attributed to Huddie Ledbetter (Lead Belly), but a recording of him singing the song is obscure or non-existent. A song titled "Ain't No More Cane on this Brazos" does not appear in the extensive discography of Leadbelly recordings contained in Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell's book The Life and Legend of Leadbelly. Alan Lomax suggests, in the notes for his recording, another source from the Texas prison community. Possibly the song became associated with Leadbelly through his various recordings of another Texas prison song titled "Go Down, Ol' Hannah" which shares some verses with "Ain't No More Cane on this Brazos".  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ain%27t_No_More_Cane 

Bel Canto - The Glassmaker

The atmospheric, melancholy, somewhat medieval soundscapes of Bel Canto (Italian for "beautiful song") mix an essentially synth-based chamber rock sound with a wide range of orchestral and folk instruments. The group hails from Norway and began as a trio consisting of ethereal vocalist Anneli Drecker plus Nils Johansen and Geir Jenssen. Bel Canto have claimed to draw their inspiration from powerful energy fields, including those of the female and the Earth's gravitational pull. Debuting in 1987 with White-Out Conditions, they started out with a sort of abstract synth pop style, gradually incorporating more neo-classical and dance elements on subsequent efforts like 1992's Shimmering, Warm & Bright. Following a few releases that delved into trip-hop rhythms, like 1998's Rush, Bel Canto went on hiatus, eventually returning in 2024 with the lush, majestic Radiant Green.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/bel-canto-mn0000125976#biography  

Ruphus - Flying Dutchman Fantasy

Ruphus was founded early 1970. The band signed with famous record label Polydor in 1973 and released six studio albums and one compilation between 1973 and 1979. During the years their sound gradually turned from harder-edged prog to more jazzrock oriented. Ruphus had good album sales after their breakthrough album Let Your Light Shine (1976), then got some airplay and toured successfully in Germany. Due to multiple line-up changes the band dissolved eventually in the early Eighties, but in the 2000s Ruphus did a number of reunion concerts.
An important part of their sound on this debut album is the interplay between the Hammond organ and the harder-edged guitar, reminding me of the Early British Progressive Rock Movement (somewhere between Atomic Rooster and Fruupp). Most songs contain catchy beats and sumptuous eruptions, blended with male vocals (with a strong accent) and female vocals, her raw, powerful and emotional sound evokes to me female singer Inga Rumpf (from contemporary German band Frumpy). The strong element in Ruphus its music is delivering variety in atmospheres and instruments, topped with a passionate approach.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=1313 

Dead Can Dance - Toward The Within - Live Santa Monica 1993

 Dead Can Dance - Toward The Within - Part 1

 

 Dead Can Dance - Toward The Within - Part 2

 

There are few voices in popular music like that of Dead Can Dance's Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard. Perry's is rich and earthy, whereas Gerrard's multi-octave instrument is, at times, downright unearthly. Toward the Within, the audiovisual version of a 1993 concert at Santa Monica's Mayfair Theatre--chosen, no doubt, for its excellent acoustics--is a fine showcase for their unique talents. Joined by five musicians on keyboards, strings, and percussion, Mark Magidson (Baraka) has filmed the proceedings in a straightforward manner, but the music is intricate and exotic enough that no special effects or fancy camera moves are necessary. The songs, which incorporate pop, folk, and world-music influences, are interspersed with interview clips, turning the release into a hybrid between a concert video and a documentary. Highlights include the hypnotic "Rakim" and soaring "American Dreaming." Toward the Within was also issued on CD, sans the interview and video clips.  From: https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Can-Dance-Toward-Within/dp/B0001JXOOE 

 

Lykantropi - Kom Ta Mig Ut

Over the past year, vintage rock phenomenon Lykantropi — based in the Värmland woods of Sweden — has re-released both their self-titled debut album and sophomore full-length, Spirituosa, in a new collaboration with Despotz Records. This November sees the release of their third album, Tales To Be Told, a collection of timeless fairy tales that together form a distillate of the band’s whole essence, both musically and personally.
Where the previous two albums largely consisted of material that has been written and composed over decades, Tales To Be Told contains almost exclusively newly written material, which the whole band has been involved in the creation process. Vocalist/guitarist Martin Östlund elaborates, “This time we’ve done everything together. We have come up with our own ideas and then arranged together. It is new for us to work in that way, but it has given us the best album we have ever made, with high quality both musically and lyrically.”
A band characterized by the occultism of the ’60s and ’70s, Lykantropi‘s music is both spiritual and dynamic. Occultism clearly shines through on the title track which is inspired by the romantic vampire film Only Lovers Left Alive. Östlund notes, “Ever since I was little, I have watched horror movies. I recorded them on VHS when they were on TV and watched them almost too many times afterwards. One summer, black and white classics were broadcasted with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. I still like horror movies very much; Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula from the ’90s is still a favorite.”
Adds bassist Tomas Eriksson, “The song ‘Kom Ta Mig Ut’ is so damn good and sweet. I love that it has several different parts that blend together. I also really like ‘Världen Går Vidare.’ The two are seven minutes each, ending Sides A and B and are in some way a mainstay for the rest of the album. ‘Världen Går Vidare’ is about life and everything in nature that wants to grow… that darkness wants to dispel and life wants more life. Everything must have arisen from nothing from the beginning. Consequently, we should be able to suspect that even nothing strives to become something…” As the two continue, it quickly becomes clear that many of the lyrics on the new album are deeply personal, including the single “Axis Of Margaret” where Eriksson tells of how he found his mother deceased.
“Loneliness has been a companion throughout my life through my upbringing and adolescence,” Östlund picks up, describing the song “Life On Hold,” “I was an odd bird and quite a bit of a thinker, but music was always my thing. During the special kind of isolation that the pandemic has entailed, however, much becomes extra clear. It gets quite personal. I feel confident in what I want out of my life.”  From: https://www.earsplitcompound.com/lykantropi-new-noise-magazine-debuts-new-video-from-swedish-psychedelic-folk-rock-collective-tales-to-be-told-full-length-to-see-release-november-6th-via-despotz-records/ 

La Chica - Oasis

Almost two years ago, La Chica (real name Sophie Fustec) gave us “Oasis”, which is certainly among the most beautiful songs we’ve heard in the recent years. “Oasis” smoothly switched between inconspicuous piano ballad and an almost James Blake-y bass-infused electronic hymn, keeping you glued to the speaker until the last sound. The song was accompanied by an equally captivating video clip directed – and heavily processed – by Noamir. The combination of such suggestive audio and video elements resulted in an unforgettable overall experience, which deserved even more YouTube views than it has received to date.
In 2017, La Chica finally gave us her first EP, also titled “Oasis”. Over the five tracks recorded in Paris – she lives in France – La Chica further demonstrated how easily she can switch between styles, sounds, instruments, moods – and even languages. In just about 20 minutes, she compressed enough ideas to possibly make a full-length album. The release of this first EP, which came out at the beginning of this year, was once again accompanied by a very special video, this time created by Temple Caché for an English-Spanish song “Be Able”. As the title of the single suggests, it is a straightforward call to get up and do, be, live – in the real meanings of these words. Let’s hope La Chica keeps doing exactly that, and helps us follow her lead.  From: https://beehy.pe/la-chica-oasis-ep-france-venezuela/

Good NightOwl - Schrödinger’s Profit

Good NightOwl is a project that has been going on for quite a while. This is their 15th (!!) full length album, the first of which came out in 2011.  There are questions to be had as to whether each album listed is actually an album in the traditional sense or just a glorified experimental demo, but it’s an extremely impressive output nonetheless. It’s safe to say that Daniel Cupps is an experienced songwriter at this point. I dug into some of his older works: The first dozen or so albums seem to be progressive rock with a quirky experimental and psychedelic edge, starting out as instrumental, and adding vocals around 2015. Around 2019, he started pushing in an increasingly math pop direction with less and less psychedelic and conventional progressive rock elements, to the point where you’d barely recognize that this was the same “band” anymore compared to the earlier sound. And thus we land on Capital, his poppiest album yet.
I say poppy, but this record is by no means straightforward or easy to digest. The music of Good NightOwl is chock full with layers, polyrhythms, time signature changes, and other proggy nuggets that keep you intellectually engaged with the music. What I find most notable about Daniel’s approach is how rhythmic everything is. We have polyrhythms on the drums, a capella vocal layering, synths and guitars accentuating different parts of the rhythms; it’s a pretty mesmerizing combination, simultaneously catchy and complex as it throws you off balance with its rhythms. I’ve never heard anything quite like this. At best, I can point to The Dear Hunter for some superficial comparisons like vocal timbre and genres used, but this is far more bright and playful.  From: https://theprogressivesubway.com/2023/08/28/review-good-nightowl-capital/  

Sinéad O'Connor - Mandinka

Based on the 1976 novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley, “Mandinka” is about slavery and Sinéad O’Connor’s connection to the civil rights movement. The 1977 miniseries adaptation inspired O’Connor to write the song. The opening verse references the Dance of the Seven Veils, popularized by Oscar Wilde’s 1891 play Salome. Wilde’s interpretation of the biblical story—inspired by earlier French writers—transforms Salome into a figure of lust. She dances for her uncle at King Herod Antipas’ birthday celebration. In return, he offers her a reward. Salome receives John the Baptist’s head on a platter.  
O’Connor explained the emotional response to Roots in her 2021 memoir Rememberings. According to O’Connor, she lived in a theocracy in Ireland and faced severe oppression at her home, finding solidarity with the Mandinka people in West Africa.
O’Connor dedicated her life to fighting oppression, and the public didn’t always receive her well. She’d received criticism for tearing up a picture of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live in 1992, a statement against sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.
At a New York concert the year before, she chose not to have the national anthem performed. Frank Sinatra threatened O’Connor with violence, and rapper MC Hammer offered to fly her back to Ireland. For her supposed crimes, stars like Joe Pesci egged on the public backlash when he appeared on SNL and imagined himself slapping O’Connor. The crowd didn’t react in horror—they cheered.
Released in 1987, O’Connor’s critically acclaimed début, The Lion and the Cobra, introduced a powerful new voice. “Mandinka” appeared as the second single, becoming a hit in the UK. She told Mojo in 2005 about her reluctance to perform songs from The Lion and the Cobra, due partly to outgrowing things written by a “little girl.”
The songs, to O’Connor, are therapy, and she didn’t want to revisit the same place emotionally. But if The Lion and the Cobra introduced O’Connor, the young artist, her following album, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, put in motion the force of her.  
O’Connor’s emotional cover of Prince’s song “Nothing Compares 2 U” became a defining moment in pop history. The close-up video of her face, cycling through anger and sadness, is iconic for more than the powerful image. You see freedom coming through her pain.  
Not Waiting on the World to Change
O’Connor’s commercial career diminished, and her struggles, including a public custody battle over her daughter, often grabbed more headlines than her music. But she didn’t lament the dwindling success, saying how much her hit “Nothing Compares 2 U” had spoiled her career. She saw its success as more damaging than the criticism she’d received.
But the world finally caught up to O’Connor. Players took a knee during the national anthem in the NFL, and the Catholic Church’s horrific handling of child abuse stubbornly came to light.
Even the Grammy Awards evolved decades after she’d performed “Mandinka” at the ceremony with Public Enemy’s logo painted on her head. At the time, the Best Rap Performance category was awarded off-screen. Subjugation comes in many forms, even inside supposedly open systems like the United States or the music industry. O’Connor received backlash, not because she was wrong. She was inconvenient. But there she stood on stage alone, beautifully defiant and bold. Amidst the tumult of her life, O’Connor unapologetically used anguish to tear down regimes of suppression and replace them with communal empathy.  From: https://americansongwriter.com/the-meaning-behind-mandinka-by-sinead-oconnor-and-the-tv-miniseries-that-inspired-it/ 

Sacred Shrines - Hung Up On Your Wall

I jumped at the chance to review an album by a Brisbane band: “Hey, I wonder what’s going on in Brisvegas music these days?” Not because it’s the sweltering subtropical sprawl that gave birth to a handful of internationally revered underground bands. Not because it’s the historically arch-conservative backwater that spawned some of my favourite punk bands. Simply because it’s the land from which I myself sprang, and where I began my lifelong infatuation with independent music.
So here we have Sacred Shrines, and it’s a pleasant surprise to hear such an accomplished chunk of retro-flavoured garage/psych from my old town. I’ve got some catching up to do, to the tune of a previous album, an EP, and a smattering of singles.
As for the current release; my overall impression of Enter The Woods is that it skews towards the poppy end of the psych spectrum; sometimes breezier, sometimes more melancholy; definitely no 10-minute improvised freakouts. In order to say something semi-intelligent about this release, I find myself thinking first about what this doesn’t sound like; it’s not quite like the droning tension of The Black Angels, or the down-tuned stoner-psych rumble of bands like The Well. It’s definitely not the hazy doomy occult sounds of Moon Coven, or the manic R&B freak-outs of Banshee (who I reviewed last year).
Obviously ‘what it isn’t’ only gets us so far – as for what it is; I’m thinking The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn as a starting point, with lashings of grimy ‘90s or ‘00s Dandy Warhols-esque grunge-pop and bombast layered on top. And although I’m characterising this album as generally pop-oriented, there’s enough darkness and gloomy flavours (that sometimes feel a little like goth rock, and occasionally even the earliest proto-punk ala The Sonics) to keep it interesting.
This is good stuff – there’s tough, driving rhythms, shimmering, hazy textures, and plenty of pop hooks, with a bit of grunt. The lead vocals vary from moaning to howling and are often deftly balanced with sweet harmony vocals. You could listen to this as the background to your mundane activities, or you could equally crank up the volume and immerse yourself in a rich and syrupy slab of psych-rock-pop.  From: https://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/sacred-shrines-enter-the-woods/

Joan Osborne - Right Hand Man

Right Hand Man by Joan Osborne: The music is based on a Captain Beefheart song called "Clear Spot." Osborne is a Beefheart fan, and played the song for Rob Hyman, Eric Bazilian and Rick Chertoff, who were working on the album with her. They played around with the beat and put it in 7/8 time to create an unusual rhythm. Beefheart got a composer credit on this.
 Rob Hyman and Eric Bazilian are founding members of The Hooters, and along with producer Rich Chertoff, they worked on Cyndi Lauper's album She's So Unusual. After Hyman saw Osborne perform, he brought her to Chertoff's attention, who helped her get a record deal. On this album, they wrote most of the songs with Osborne, although Bazilian wrote her hit "One Of Us" on his own. For this song, Osborne came up with the title and wrote most of the lyrics.    
Joan Osborne did do a song about masturbation. But it's Match Struck Twice; find it on her Early Recordings album. This awesome, hard-rocking song, though, is just about screwing enthusiastically, happily, and unashamedly all night. Starting on the guy's floor, til she really needs a chair. On a chair til she needs the sofa, and on the sofa til she's saying, where's your bedroom? He's good with his hand as well... at keeping the proceedings going. End of the night she hasn't slept, is wired and tired, and heads home on a supposed walk of shame about which she is not ashamed.

From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/joan-osborne/right-hand-man


Nine Inch Nails - The Great Destroyer

It usually takes over half a decade for a new NIN album to surface. Not this time. May 2005 saw the release of With Teeth, the long-awaited follow-up to 1999’s The Fragile, the latter the sound of helplessness and despair of drug addiction committed to tape. Now, both clean and sober, Reznor is on a roll. Having woken up from a deep dependency, he has found that the creative juices are still flowing, and in under two years, With Teeth’s successor is here.
Two years ago when Hammer spoke to the newly drug-free Trent, he was in good health, but his manner still painted a picture of an anxious sociophobe. Conversation came uneasily with little eye-contact. Today the classically-trained musician is the relaxed and sunny antithesis of his former self. Explaining when and how he started this new album, Trent admits that it had a lot to do with boredom. That while “it’s fun to play the show,’ the rest of the day is just waiting around. So he started working with the “limitation” that all he had was a laptop, and so, “some cool stuff started happening.”
After the With Teeth tour, he decided against taking a break. He started expanding the ideas he’d created using only his laptop, and the lyrical concept was born. Trent had just moved to Los Angeles – an incongruous choice for the renowned antisocial – from where he’d previously moved to isolate himself, New Orleans.
“I didn’t go to LA for the culture,” he says smiling a wry smile. “I moved there to be around my peers. The fake tits and celebrity bullshit is all there, but it’s not all that’s there. You don’t see me out, or see pictures of me shopping – I’m repulsed by it to be quite frank – but I needed to be around people who do what I do, to make the whole Year Zero thing happen.”
With everything going so swimmingly, Trent moved from his new home to a remote and “creepy” house in the Californian hills to write and build lyrics out of his concept. Disappearing into the woodwork for a while, the isolation allowed him to escape the usual urban distractions, and Trent centered himself. After three months on the far side of nowhere, all that remained was the odd nip and tuck, and Year Zero was road-ready. The new record was not to be simply another album of gloomy introspection, but the first of two albums: a big picture political narrative about a dystopian very near future in which a selfish people abuse their world and have to suffer the consequences, and an elusive force called, The Presence.
“Oh hey, we can talk about that”, Trent says before addressing the label person charged with keeping his schedule running on time. “Give me five more minutes, OK?” Reaching the end of our allotted interview time, we mention something that he’s keen to talk about, and he extends our interview. Shocked that the socially anxious recluse would want to spend more time being probed, we sit down again. He explains that the main purpose of the record was to call attention to the totalitarian political climate and how we are destroying ourselves and our planet.
“It was an epiphany of sorts,” he says. “And it revolves around sobriety. When you’re an addict you feel like your problems are the biggest problems in the world. I’m not saying I can change the world, but now I feel like it’s my duty as a human to do try and do something.” Trent has admitted that when he quit drugs he was worried that he wouldn’t be able to write again, but that With Teeth proved he could. Does his lyrical choice of a fictional concept suggest he no longer has personal demons to confront? “I was writing fiction for the first time,” he says before quickly reassuring us that: “it’s clearly fiction. I couldn’t write another Downward Spiral because that would be lying.” So is ‘the concept’ a substitute for personal exorcism? Or are you really just tapping into emotions that are fast fading into the rear-view mirror?
“This is a good question because…” He stops for a few seconds and averts his eyes. “Let me just think about this for a sec.” Again he pauses. The silence is uncomfortable. “I’ll just keep my mouth shut.” About what? “I know you’re baiting me,” he says, smiling warmly. “When the day comes that I have to hire the flavour of the day to write my records for me so I can sound like what my records used to sound like so I can make money… just stick a fork in me. Honestly. I don’t mean to sound like I’m on a high horse here but when it gets to that state, that’s absolutely not what I’m about. From principle. I’ll walk the highway before I start doing that shit.”
Trent becomes animated as he asserts that whether or not you like Nine Inch Nails, loved or hated this or that record, he made them all for the right reasons. “Because it means more to me than anything else in my life. I can sleep well at night – when I can sleep – knowing that I have always kept that pure.”  From: https://www.loudersound.com/features/nine-inch-nails-year-zero-interview-2007

Cecile Corbel - La Fille Damnee

Cécile Corbel is a French singer-songwriter and harpist whose whimsical melodies and ethereal vocals have captured the hearts of fans worldwide. With a knack for blending Celtic influences with modern indie pop sensibilities, Corbel has carved out a unique niche for herself in the music industry.
Her music is like a breath of fresh air, transporting listeners to a world filled with enchanting melodies and haunting harmonies. With a voice that is as delicate as a fairy's whisper, Corbel weaves intricate tales of love, loss, and everything in between.
Corbel first gained attention with her enchanting soundtrack for the animated film "Arrietty," which earned her critical acclaim and a loyal following. Since then, she has released several albums that showcase her extraordinary talent as both a singer and a musician.
With a style that is both nostalgic and contemporary, Corbel continues to push the boundaries of traditional folk music, creating a sound that is uniquely her own. Whether she is strumming her harp or singing a heartfelt ballad, Corbel's passion for music shines through in every note.  From: https://vinylcastle.com/collections/cecile-corbel?srsltid=AfmBOoo_XIPDJGyOg-9nuivW3Xfmz3XzpEkFzC4EoOWDpsynERSbdojK