The Bilinda Butchers - Night and Blur

Michal Kepsky and Adam Honingford have been writing and creating music together since they were around fifteen years old, initially bonding over a shared love of shoegaze and, as you can probably discern from the band name, My Bloody Valentine. Along with the shoegaze and dream pop influences from MBV and bands like The Radio Dept. and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, there was also the love of video game soundtracks and bossa nova that had a hand in the BB’s wonderfully unique sound, always somewhere between the jagged and the whimsical, the sharp and vulnerable. In this sense, however, Regret, Love, Guilt, Dreams – which Kepsky entirely wrote and recorded on his own – comes with a disclaimer, as he has admitted he is obviously not the same person today as he as when it was written over eight years ago. It’s an album partially fueled – even if by unintentional means – by teenage angst and yearning, by emotions flowing out so fast there is that conscious need to make sense of them. 
There’s also the heavy, continuous theme of cinema within their discography that makes itself known in gorgeously subtle ways within these two EPs; In fact, Kepsky mentioned in a 2010 interview that he treats every song as a singular scene in a movie of his own design, all dwelling on moments within the darker, more painful complexities of the human condition – and, perhaps most of all, the feelings that come with being deep within the throes of loneliness, in both its physical and emotional variations. They want you to engage with their music in this manner, to picture something happening, preferably something that deals with love or, to converge with the aforementioned themes, perhaps more with the lack thereof.  From: https://kidwithavinyl.wordpress.com/2019/10/18/kwav-revisited-the-bilinda-butchers/ 

Robin & Linda Williams - Chain Of Pain

“All we ever wanted when we started out was to have a career in music.” Robin Williams was on the line from the tiny hamlet of Middlebrook, out in the Shenandoah Valley where he lives with wife and musicmate Linda.“We didn’t have any goals of being on the radio or being household names. We just wanted to have a life in music. It’s such a gift to have, to be able to work on it every day. And then to make a living in it is just icing on the cake. Here we are, forty three years into it and still doing it.”
Robin and Linda Williams have “done it” in a way they probably could never have imagined when they first met in 1971. But in 1975, shortly after releasing their first album, they met a guy named Garrison Keillor who had a new little radio variety show in St. Paul, Minnesota, called A Prairie Home Companion. He liked their music the first time he heard them, and Robin & Linda Williams became an integral part of the PHC family, appearing often on the iconic public radio program over the next forty years.
For much of that time, Robin & Linda toured with “Their Fine Group.” But when they come to town for a Tidewater Friends of Acoustic Music concert on January 14th, it will just be the two of them doing it the way they started out. “It’s been a period of transition,” Robin told me. “We ran a four-piece band for thirty years. The last couple of years of the run of the band, Linda and I began feeling the need to do something different. We’re kind of nicheless when it comes to musical genre: We’re really not bluegrass; we’re really not just singer-songwriters; we’re not just old time music. We’re all of it. After all this time, we started feeling that we’d like to do something different.“
It took us a while to think about that, to make a change. There are huge advantages to having a band. There’s the fun factor, wonderful musicians to play with every night. So we had to think about what we’d lose and what we’d gain by just going back to being a duo. “When we made the decision, it presented some challenges musically. But it’s been energizing, it’s been great fun taking all the responsibility of writing thoughtful arrangements and stepping it up musically. We are responsible for all of the music, the two of us. It’s been fun pulling it off every night. And then there’s something that we didn’t even think about—the freedom it gives you to pull new tunes together quickly, to shift gears on stage and play a song we haven’t played in a long time if someone wants to hear it.”  From: http://www.jimnewsom.com/robin-linda-williams-a-life-in-music/

Strawbs - Lady Fuschia

Bursting at the Seams represents the Strawbs at the peak of their powers both artistic and commercial. Grave New World was a great concept and piece of work, but really didn't have all that many great "songs", given the number of very short pieces. Hero and Heroine was sheer genius but, like much genius, a bit insane, and Ghosts, while vying for the title of Strawbs' most well rounded album, lacked the commercial clout to truly conquer American audiences, which was the goal. Bursting at the Seams is an incredibly consistent, musically diverse, and very accessible album of song oriented folk-rock with strong progressive overtones.
The album begins with a Strawbs classic, "Flying", with narrative verses, harmonic choruses and even a gorgeous instrumental break featuring a banjo/mellotron combination. Lady Fuschia is a lovely soft rock track featuring the vocals of Hudson and Ford and even some sitar. Stormy Down is one of two country-flavoured rockers...it could have been a hit but for the use of the phrase "God the Father". Great lead guitar by the newcomer Dave Lambert, in tasteful small doses. Next are the perennial favourites "The River" and "Down by the Sea". Plenty of dramatics, sweeping contrasts, soft reflective vocals and agonized wails. Even a moving orchestral section. Next is the big hit "Part of the Union". Commercial yes, but also catchy and instrumentally bright, especially Blue Weaver's honky tonk piano solo. "Tears and Pavan" introduces one of the earliest "Goth" pieces, with echoed vocals, stately mellotron, and great sadness, followed by a Greek sounding dance. In terms of contrasts on the theme of melodic prog and folk, this album knows no peer. But it's not over. Dave Lambert's first and best songwriting contribution is the emotional "The Winter and the Summer", quiet with mellotron/organ and a heavy middle 8, with an intense ending leading into one of Cousins' greatest songs, the hard proggy country rock song "Lay Down". From the opening chords you know you are in for something awesome, sort of the way "Benedictus" opened Grave New World. The use of mellotron choir is one of the first of its kind. While Bursting at the Seams uses mellotron heavily, do not be misled into thinking that these songs are nothing without it. The recent acoustic revival of the group bears witness to the power of these songs in an unplugged setting. Having said that, the presence of Blue's organ, piano, harpsichord and mellotron does augment the tunes to celestial heights. The original closer was the rather silly "Thank You" with a children's choir.
While other Strawbs A&M album rereleases featured mostly mediocre bonus tracks, the ones here are among the best, again reflecting the confidence and panache of Cousins and company at this point in time. "Will ye Go" is a nigh traditional piece that is given the Celtic rock treatment, accent on rock, with Blue filling in on accordion. "Backside" features impressive atmospherics and lead guitar in its treatment of the Spiders from Mars personae. Cousins pulls off the vocals impressively as well, with their fairly explicit sexual messages. Finally, the original single version of Lay Down is provided for completeness sake.
Bursting at the Seams is probably the first real rock album by the Strawbs, and is the most essential album from that period. Prog fans note it is not their most progressive - that title might go to one of the other 3 "big 4" albums - but prog fans with an interest in folk will find much to enjoy here.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=2895

Loaded Honey - Don't Speak

A year after landing a Brit award for best British group, two-thirds of retro-soul dance-pop practitioners Jungle are going it alone. Lydia Kitto and J Lloyd’s debut as Loaded Honey traces the highs and lows of their romantic relationship, cocooning it in a vaguely trippy suite of songs that fuse soul, R&B, funk and, on occasion, the playful cut-and-paste bricolage of the Avalanches.
Unhurried opener In Your Arms steadily builds layers of atmosphere, weaving strings around pitched vocals and distant harps, while Over – which hints at trouble in paradise – uses a downcast doo-wop feel and high-wire coos to create a luxuriant sadness. The pair can pick up the pace too; Don’t Speak’s feather-light funk is anchored by Kitto’s joyous vocal, while Really Love dabbles in the emotional push-pull of 60s girl groups.
As with Jungle’s recent output, Love Made Trees is immaculately produced, the perfect soundtrack to a wine-drunk dinner party or a long bath with posh candles. As their name suggests, the record is smooth, oozing sweetness that definitely hits the spot but can leave you longing for a hint of sour.  From: https://observer.co.uk/culture/music/article/album-review-loaded-honey-love-made-trees

Sammy - Get Into A New Thing

It's doubtful many folks have ever heard the British band Sammy - I certainly hadn't which was kind of surprising given the band's impressive pedigree.   Drummer Mick Underwood was apparently the band's driving force, with the lineup rounded out by a collection of rock veterans including ex-Audience horn and woodwinds player Keith Gemmell, ex-Billy J. Kramer keyboardist Mick Hodgkinson, former Ginhouse guitarist Geoff Sharkey, and ex-Roy Young Band bassist Paul Simmons. Signed by Philips, the band debuted with a 1972 45 'Goo Ger Woogie' b/w 'Big Lovin' Woman' (Philips c.  While the single did little commercially, it attracted enough interest and attention for Philips management to green light an album.
Co-produced by Louie Austin and Deep Purple's Ian Gillan (not Jon Lord) and the front cover artwork was done by Philip Castle who was the man who did the artwork for the film Clockwork Orange. 1973's "Sammy" offered up a competent, if slightly worn set of mid-1970s hard rock.  
Largely penned by Sharkey and Simmons, lyrically and musically there wasn't a lot of originality going on here (kind of like the album cover) - Gemmell's sax adding occasional jazz-influenced runs to the band's blues and rock-oriented sound.  As lead singer Sharkey wasn't bad; his raw raspy voice sounded surprisingly good on tracks like 'Give Me More', their unlikely cover of 'I Ain't Never Loved a Woman (The Way That I Love You)', and 'Get Into a New Thing'.  Imagine Uriah Heep-lite with the saxes, a little more boogie and variety ('Who Do You Really Love') and you'll be in the right aural neighborhood.  From: https://madshoesmusicology.blogspot.com/2024/11/sammy-sammy-1972.html 

Lais - Didn't Leave Nobody But The Baby

This is a Black American folk song, originating in the slavery era. At that time, it was dangerous for enslaved people to speak openly about their concerns, so many songs of the era have hidden or concealed meanings. As a folk song, however, neither the lyrics nor the interpretations are fixed, so it can be difficult or impossible to make a definitive determination.
Like many of the most popular lullabies and nursery rhymes of many traditions (compare Rock a Bye Baby or Ring Around the Mulberry Bush there's some dark and ominous imagery here. It's perhaps most instructive to compare it to All the Pretty Horses, another lullaby with similar origins, and a more established meaning. As in that song, we can surmise that this song is being sung by an enslaved caretaker of a baby belonging to the slavemasters, leading to a mix of tenderness and anger in the lyrics.

Your momma gone away and your daddy's gone to stay
Didn't leave nobody but the baby

The "momma" having gone away indicates that the woman singing is not the baby's actual mother. Likewise, the baby's father is also out of the home.

Everybody's gone in the cotton and the corn
Didn't leave nobody but the baby

With all the masters gone, the baby is at the mercy of its caretaker.

She's long gone with her red shoes on
Gonna need another loving baby

The mother is out having fun, and doesn't care what happens to her child. She might need a new one, because her current child may not have long to live.

You and me and the devil makes three
Don't need no other loving baby

This moves more into pure speculation, but "don't need no other loving baby" may be a veiled reference to her being unable to take care of her own children (as in All the Pretty Horses) because of being forced to caretake her master's child. The devil is present, because she is having fantasies about killing the baby in revenge.

Come lay your bones on the alabaster stones
And be my ever loving baby

This seems like the most clear threat in the song --the alabaster stones, are, of course, the headstones in the graveyard.

This is a song that seems to have originated among slaves in the southern US and has has been passed on orally from generation to generation by people who might not even have been able to write, so there is no 'authoritative' version of the lyrics. So, of course, no interpretation of those lyrics is going to be 'authoritative'. There are probably almost as many different interpretations as there have been attempts at interpretation. A recurring theme in these is that the baby has been abandoned by both parents and the singer is preparing to poison it, but there are plenty of other variations.

From: https://musicfans.stackexchange.com/questions/10086/origin-and-meaning-of-didnt-leave-nobody-but-the-baby

Mu - The Land Of Mu

Mu were: Merrell Fankhauser (Vocal, Guitar, Bass, Percussion), Jeff Cotton (Vocal, Guitar, Bass Clarinet), Randy Wimer (Vocal, Drums, Percussion), Jeff Parker (Bass), Mary Lee (Occasional Violin)
If you’re feeling lost, depressed or brought down by life’s humdrum reality, a good cure is to give Mu a listen. Much of the music on these pages carries a certain amount of — weight. Which is fine if you want to get out there on the perimeter. What MU does, though, is like a warm gentle breeze blowing through your soul, a spiritual spring clean.
All the members of Mu had been in LA pop bands at some time during the early 60s, oriented towards surf with Beatles and Byrds influences. Fapardokly was an album collection of these early efforts released only in LA and copies used to change hands for up to $2000 among collectors, such was the aura surrounding it. Fankhauser was in the Surfaris, and I think it is his voice that can be heard laughing maniacally at the beginning of Wipeout. Cotton landed a gig in Beefheart’s Magic Band, playing on Strictly Personal and Trout Mask Replica. Many chapters have been written about the influence of this latter album on rock, one of the most surreal, jagged episodes ever in music, and Cotton was a key part of the creation process. 
So … surf meets Beefheart. They recorded a promising first album in LA, then decamped to Hawaii where they embraced a blissed-out lifestyle of vegetarianism, flying saucer watching, study of the lost Pacific continent of MU and creating gentle, organic music. The CD reissue on Sundazed contains the first album, the second, only released locally at the time, plus singles. I’m concentrating here on the second, recorded and released in 1974.
The Land Of Mu starts with Merrell seeing ‘eyes watching over me and you’, a sub-two-minute introduction to their philosophy. Then we are invited to Make A Joyful Noise, with slide solos and bizzare cooing noises from Cotton. Haleaka La is an instrumental hinting at some of the weirdness Cotton took away from his Magic Band tenancy, soloing on bass clarinet and sliding around some more on guitar. Blue Jay Blue and Showering Rain are more developed songs. Tuneful images of birds in flight and rain on water abound. Beatific, crafted pop ballads all overlaid with that exquisite slide of Cotton’s. I Saw Your Photograph doesn’t make it for me — too twee by far — but hey, there’s twenty songs here. Mary Lee plays wistful violin on the next two ballads. Calling From A Star is the next standout with harmonics and wind effects giving the feeling they are singing from light years away. They belt out Waiting For The Sun a bit harder and we have predictions of aliens, heralded by Halleys Comet, landing here in 1986, to bring in a golden age. Did I miss it?  From: https://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/reviews/mu-end-of-an-era 

Hle - Umile

A pastor's daughter born in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, in 1991, singer Hlengiwe Ntombela—better known as Hle—has brought glamorous soul power to South Africa's contemporary-gospel scene since joining Joyous Celebration in 2016. HLE began her career as a backing vocalist for Ntokozo Mbambo, and has collaborated with Hlengiwe Mhlaba and gospel giant Benjamin Dube. But it’s her 2020 solo debut, Your Kingdom on Earth, recorded with the award-winning producer Siyanqoba Mthethwa, that established Hle as ruler of her own musical dominion. Funky, soulful, and majestic tracks like iTunes chart-topper "Dwala,” "Living Hope," and "You Are" (a colorful series of encomiums to Jesus) ascend from simmering foundations to ecstatic climaxes.  From: https://www.jesusfreakhideout.com/news/2022/11/11.GlobalMusicStarHLEMakesUSDebutWithNewSingleYoureTheWorthyOne.asp 

Magic Circle - Rapture

Worship bands are a polarizing concept; the idea that a group of musicians would get together with the intention of sounding exactly like another band that came before them is unoriginal to some, but entirely exciting to others. In the end, the quality of a worship band comes down to two questions: subject and execution. And Sabbath and perfect really isn’t that bad when you think about it.
I caught up with Magic Circle guitarist and songwriter Chris Corry as we drove from one gig to another at Toronto’s annual punk festival Not Dead Yet. As I ate jerk pork in the back seat and he stopped to take photos of Sweet Pete’s Bike Shop because a sign that said “Sweet Pete’s” simply couldn’t be passed undocumented, we discussed Magic Circle’s record, Journey Blind on 20 Buck Spin (which you can stream in it’s entirety below), seeing concerts in arenas, and the underground music rivalry between YouTube and Bandcamp.

Noisey: Who are you and where do you come from?
Chris Corry: My name is Chris Corry and I grew up in Northern Virginia. My family is in Springfield now, so about 20 minutes from the District of Columbia.

Is that where you started going to shows?
Yeah. I went to a lot of big concerts when I was in high school. There would be these big radio station concerts at RFK Stadium. I think it’s a soccer stadium now. I saw the Ramones in 1994, there were those 20 bands for 20 bucks things, I saw a lot of alternative bands that people care about now that they didn’t care about, like I saw Hum, Archers of Loaf, PJ Harvey, Primus. The most violent mosh pit I’ve ever seen was for Primus, not fucking kidding man. They brought the pain.

And what was your first DIY stuff?
I went to punk shows and stuff. Just local bands that you would never have even heard of in Northern Virginia. There was this store called Record Convergence about 15 minutes from where I grew up. It’s a dry cleaner now. They had it all there. There was old hard rock and punk and metal. Local bands had their demos there. I went to see a lot of those local bands. I started going to big hardcore shows after that, but the first shows I saw were with no name bands from the 90s.

And when did you start playing in bands?
I had a couple of hardcore bands in high school that didn’t really do anything. And I started playing in hardcore bands in Boston.

Why did you move to Boston?
College.

Where?
Northeastern University.

For what?
Graphic design.

Do you do that for work?
I don’t do it for work. I work at a school actually. I do music stuff with kids. I record music in our music studio there.

That’s awesome. When did this band start?
Magic Circle started in, honestly dude, 2010. Me and the other guys in the band, Justin who plays bass, Q who plays drums, Brendan who’s the singer, and Dan who’s the other guitar player, we got together the end of 2010 and practiced for eight months, recorded in the spring of 2011 and had a finished record and didn’t know what to do with it. Maybe six months later we put it out, put a couple songs on the ol’ YouTube. Which is I guess is how you get people who have never heard of your band to hear your band.

YouTube before Bandcamp? 
So historically speaking, I don’t know the timeline of when Bandcamp came to be [Laughs]. It was probably around but maybe we weren’t aware of it, maybe you needed to be a real underground Bandcamp kind of person. We put some songs online in the fall of 2011 and then we did a couple shows and we pressed two songs onto a single in 2012. Armageddon Shop in Boston, which is a cool store that exists there that releases records from time to time, put out our first LP. And we’ve done some more shows since then pretty regularly. Started working on a new LP. We were rehearsing it and writing it in 2014 and then we recorded it in the beginning of 2015 and it’s all done now.

Where did you record it?
At my practice space The Paincave and at out bass player’s parents basement. We did the drums in the basement and we did everything else in the practice space.

What are your biggest influences on Magic Circle?
Definitely Black Sabbath, man. That’s my favorite band of all time. I try not to just wholesale rip it off, we mix in other things and mix together other ideas. But bluntly, that’s the biggest influence.

How do you guys write a song? 
Usually I sit down at home, play some guitar, come up with some riffs. Then I work them out in a skeleton, just a basic format, bring it to the other dudes, we tinker around with it a little bit, let them hear everything I got and then we make a rough demo of it before we do the actual recording. We do all the vocals, all the guitar solos. It’s weird because it’s kind of like we record the record twice. I had already heard every song completed before we did the proper recording of the LP. That way we weed out ideas that don’t work and make little adjustments and make sure we’re pleased with everything. So then when we do it for real there are no questions going into it.

What’s your relationship like with 20 Buck Spin?
Real cool, man. We talked to a few people that had done stuff on the label. Dave who runs the label got in touch after the first LP came out. And it wasn’t even to work with us or anything, he was just like, “hey, I really enjoyed the record, good job.” We had mutual friends but we didn’t know each other. When we were working out how we were going to release this one after we recorded it I just kind of cold called him and was like, “hey I don’t know if you’re interested but we have a record and here’s the songs and here’s the art. If you’re interested we need a label to put it out.” It’s been real easy since then. He’s real communicative, seems to give a shit about what he’s doing, seems to be really psyched about all the bands he’s working with. So that’s cool. A real easy guy to work with.

From: https://www.vice.com/en/article/magic-circle-interview/ 

Annie Oakley - Pomp and Swell

Annie Oakley is a folk band fronted by twin sisters Grace and Sophia Babb, paired with the violin and one-liners of Nia Personette. They are keen on telling stories, finding the sweetest harmonies possible, and playing shows where they meet the listeners they're playing for.
They started writing songs after the deaths of their fathers when they were middle school students. Nia lost her dad just a year before the Babb sisters lost theirs. This mutually-shared grief made them closer than friends – they became three sisters instead of two. During this period of recovery and self-discovery at the height of adolescence, they wrote songs, played countless shows, and began touring.
Now they’re graduating from college and the grief that first brought them to music. Once their remedy for pain, folk music has become their recipe for joy. The recent release of their first full-length album, Words We Mean, chronicles their transition from youth to young womanhood, from grief to happiness, narrating the first chapter of their story.  From: https://www.factoryshowroomseries.com/annie-oakley 

The Body & Dis Fig - Audiotree Live 2025

Back in October of 2021 I had the absolute honour of reviewing the The Body and BIG|BRAVE collaborative album Leaving None But Small Birds for The Sleeping Shaman. Back then I didn’t have any knowledge of who either band were, beyond having seen the names on various advertising and promotional platforms.
Knowing that The Body has a reputation as an experimental metal outfit, I was intrigued as to what the album would be like and was absolutely surprised with what I found. Not at all what I was expecting, I loved the album, and the review conveyed that without any doubts at all. Since then I have become quite the fan of BIG|BRAVE, but The Body has somewhat eluded me, until now.
Jumping forward to 2024, and the 23rd of February sees the release of the newest The Body collaboration, this time with Berlin based experimental DJ Dis Fig. It’s a very different experience to my last The Body outing, and through the course of this review, I will endeavour to explain why, and leave you with a need to explore deeper, and truly give yourselves to not only The Body, but to Dis Fig too.
The album itself is entitled Orchards Of A Futile Heaven and after experiencing the work, it does conjure up ideas of an apocalyptic future, and the notion of a futile heaven too. Over the course of the seven tracks, if you are brave enough to engage with the album, you will be subjected to an absolute mind melting sonic journey, the likes of which is pretty nightmare inducing let me tell you that.
Never overly death metal heavy, the intensity through the expertise in sonic noise scapes will infect your every pore, and leave you begging for it to stop, such is the power of the aural assault. This isn’t to say that its unlistenable, quite the opposite in fact, but what I am trying to express is the fact that the density of the sound will be, at times, utterly overwhelming, with a power which will give you the want to press pause on it all for a second. It will leave your heart racing, and your head pounding, and if that all sounds pretty exciting, then you’ve definitely come to the right place.
Opening with Eternal Hours, you would be very wrong to expect the first minute of uncomfortable fuzzy feedback and disjointed industrial noise to continue throughout the five minutes. By the end of the first couple of minutes everything has evolved, and the disjointed parallel of pained screeching and softer shoegazy vocal is coursing deeply within the sonic baseline.
I draw comparison to Portishead, but not so much for anything from the early incarnation of the band, more so for the album Third, when Portishead really go deep into exploring soundscapes and angst driven rhythms. It is painful to ingest, but such is the point of this sort of musical exploration.
This closeness and vibe doesn’t ever let up throughout the whole album, and while The Body create these post-apocalyptic scenarios sonically, Dis Fig effortlessly flits between moments of utter lunacy, and softer, almost serene beauty vocally, all the while bouncing off of the foreboding background. Its utterly awkward, at times jarring, and completely compelling.
For me it’s a weird one, because there are times when I can point at Portishead for a near comparison, and at others it’s as if Dis Fig has been looking towards Björk as a figurehead to look to for abrasive and unique vocal stylings. This is very true on tracks such as To Walk A Higher Path and Dissent, Shame, when that lean nudges me towards Björk especially, and yet, at other times, such as Coils Of Kaa it has a touch of Fever Ray in the mix. Such is the dynamic of Dis Figs voice, on track seven, Back To The Water, I would even go as far as adding Chelsea Wolfe vibes to that list too.
All the while, The Body throw absolutely everything at the recording, and no two minutes seem to have the same elements of sound. It saves the work from becoming stagnant, and at the same time gives the listener no chance to sit back and enjoy the ambience either.
As an exercise in experimental music goes, I have to say that not since Trent Reznor at his most vibrant have I been captivated like I have with this Mad Max desolate future soundtrack music, and this is a true testament to all the musicians involved.
Well, I say musicians, I think innovators is probably a more appropriate word, as this is truly visionary, and for the new generation of music, this should be the benchmark for groundbreaking and anxiety inducing terror. And that, my friends, is the real mark of art in its purest form.  From: https://thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/t/body-dis-fig-orchards-futile-heaven/

The Lazy Eyes - Starting Over

What led to the formation of The Lazy Eyes?

Harvey Geraghty: High school brought us together thank goodness! Itay, Noah and I met at the start of high school and started jamming at lunch times. That progressed to busking around the city with an acoustic set up to make some cash. With that cash we bought many many guitar pedals. It came to a point where we weren’t making much money busking (we lost the cute factor as we got older) so we ditched playing Katy Perry songs for cash and started a “real band”. Leon came to the school in year 11 and we instantly bonded over the same types of music. And here we are today, about releasing our first album and playing shows all around the place!

You’re a fairly new band… tell us what are some of the main influences when it comes to music making?

We are a fairly new band to the public eye but we have actually been playing together for like 6 years now. Nowadays we are influenced by all types of music whether it be rave music or finger style Americana guitar music. Back in high school we were influenced by the psych giants (Flaming Lips, Tame Impala, Unknown Mortal Orchestra). These are the main types of influences you can hear on ‘SongBook’.

After releasing two EP’s, are you excited to finally release an album that will be also available on physical format?

It’s been such a long time coming that it kind of just feels surreal that all these songs will be out in the world and no longer in our control. We are very excited of course, especially to get out and play the album live in different places around the world!

What’s the story behind the ‘SongBook’?

‘SongBook’ is our debut album and boy has it been a long time coming. We started recording the very first pieces of this album in the middle of high school, before we even knew it would turn into an album. During the making of the album we learnt so many things from scratch; how to record, mix audio, make album art, the list goes on! And here we are years later with our first project fully realised. ‘SongBook’ is our first baby and it encapsulates the first era of The Lazy Eyes. Here’s to many more!

From: https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2022/06/the-lazy-eyes-interview-new-album-songbook.html 

Solstice - Frippa

I am convinced that if someone had approached Andy Glass a while back and told him that all his work and trials over the last 40+ years would be finally worth it, that his band, himself and one of the singers would all be voted #1 in the latest Prog Reader's Polls, with three others also getting in the Top Ten, while their latest albums would be highly acclaimed by both fans and critics he would have had a very good laugh indeed, as what has happened with Solstice in the last decade has been nothing short of remarkable, and highly deserved.
The debut came out in 1984, the second in 1992 and the third five years later before they went into hiatus. It wasn't until 2010 that the fourth album was released, and Solstice was by now gaining some continuity with the first appearance of Jenny Newman (violin), Pete Hemsley (drums), Robin Phillips (bass) and Steven McDaniel (keyboards, vocals). This was followed up with 'Prophecy' in 2013 with the same line-up (Emma Brown singing on both), but then there was a gap until 2020 and 'Sia'. Emma had been with the band since 1997's 'Circles', but for 'Sia' they now introduced singer Jess Holland, and the world finally stood up and paid attention. The second album of the 'Sia' trilogy, 'Light Up', was released in 2022 and now we come to the final part, 'Clann'. The harmony layered vocals have by now become an incredibly important part of the band's live performance, so much so that they have now become one of the very few prog bands who hit the road with three singers, with Jess now joined by Ebony Buckle and Dyanne Crutcher (plus Nick Burns also guests on vocals on one track).
Solstice were always associated with the Neo Prog scene; they were one of the most important bands keeping the prog light alive back in the Eighties, but their heavy use of violin always gave them a different sound, and now they are far more into crossover, both the sub-genre itself and the way they approach music. There is the strong sensation that here is a band who are finding their own way, and it is exciting and new, even though they have history going back aeons. They even recognise that as there is a bonus on the CD which is a rearranged take on "Earthsong" which was originally on the debut. Here is a band who are mixing folk, rock, prog and even dance into something which always feels light, airy, and simply remarkable. The harmony vocals alone gives them a very different take on prog, while Andy often sits in the background (with a very big smile on his face), rarely taking the lead role (although he can be dynamic and punchy when the need arises). Jenny has a wonderfully delicate touch on violin, knowing when to lead the melody, when to slow it down and when to make it sing, while Steven either provides banks of sound for the others to play against or take the lead himself. As for Pete Hemsley and Robin Philipps, here they provide a masterclass in rhythm section, knowing when to provide plenty of space and also when to come back in and hold down the foundation, even providing counter melodies.
Then there is Jess. She has one of those voices which is effortless, and she can do whatever she likes with it, but here she is fronting one of the most impressive and relentless prog bands around. There is little doubt in my mind that Solstice have produced the most remarkable, intriguing and delightful album of their career to date, and it is great to see how everyone else has finally recognised what an amazing band they are. I first reviewed them some 30 years ago and have always been a fan, but this is next level and very special indeed.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=89810

The Fernweh - Is This Man Bothering You

PS: I know this music has been sitting around for awhile, so I’m glad to see that it’s going to see the light of day. But I also know that the idea of this band dates back more than just a couple of years. Can you tell me how this whole thing came together?

Jamie Backhouse: It was at Glastonbury during a Candie Payne show we did. I’d only known Ned probably a matter of days, but immediately we were forming a band. We spoke about music in the same way.

Ned Crowther: I love American music, but there’s this other side where I’ve always had an interest in British psychedelia, British folk music, and Jamie and I really connected on that level. At the time, it was before the folk revival—the Mumford and Sons-type thing—we thought, “Wouldn’t it be great to bring some of that back?” To write in a very British folk style, but keep it rock and not twee with ukuleles and such. A few artists have been doing that in America for awhile – Devendra Banhart, Fleet Foxes. We just wanted to do a British version of that.

Backhouse: That band never happened. Every time we’d meet, we’d always say, “We’ve got to make that band happen.” It almost became a bit of a running joke. Four years go by, we’d meet up. “Oh yeah, we should still do that band.” There was kind of a sense it wasn’t going to happen, which felt like a bit of a shame. Myself and Ozzy got a bit sick of sessions—we were driving to rehearsals, and the music was fine, but we were just thinking, “You know what? I just want to play my own stuff.” I mentioned to him I’d been writing quite a lot and recording and Ozzy said, “Yeah, me too.” So we started to get together and come up with ideas.

Austin “Oz” Murphy: Life was catching up with us and it was a matter of: “We better do something before it’s too late.”

Crowther: I think we were often frustrated by the session life, where you’re very much at the mercy of changing whims and changing schedules. You’ve got no real creative outlet—you just do what you’re told. If you’re lucky, you get paid for it.

Murphy: Jamie and myself started playing in my loft trying to get some stuff together. We had a couple of bits. The first thing we got together in a demo form was “The Liar”—Jamie had this kind of folk guitar riff, but it didn’t have that bass behind it. We got a beat going behind it and a bit of synthesizer. He put down the guitar solo and I put down the bass, and then we thought, “This is quite interesting now.”

Backhouse: Ozzy and I realized that these ideas were just becoming songs. Three, four minutes and verse/chorus structures. They needed words, so we thought, “Well let’s get someone in to write with us who can sing.” The first person we thought of was Ned, which was quite a strange choice because he lives 300 miles away. [Laughter]

Murphy: We’d kind of lost touch with Ned after the Candie Payne thing, but we were always kind of thinking, “Do you think Ned will be into doing stuff? Is he busy?”

Backhouse: I don’t even think Ned fronted a band as a singer before, and I don’t know that I’d heard him sing prior to that. But I had a strong sense—and Ozzy did too—that Ned would be just a great fit.
 
PS: What effect did being separated by hundreds of miles have on the creative process?

Backhouse: The first thing we did was “Is This Man Bothering You?” Ned had a lyrical concept and it just fit straightaway. From there on, he’d come up every two months and we’d have a manic weekend of “Gotta finish a song! Gotta record a song!” Every session was just magic. He’d go away back home and we’d work on it in our own little sort of insular way. It was two processes, really: These mad weekends of intense creative group energy and then two months of me taking it away to do mixing and editing. Ozzy would whack a sax part down here and there.

Crowther: It was a really wonderful process. I would come up, we’d write or record a song, go away and live with it for a bit.

Murphy: A lot of the record was done over email. We never would’ve got it done otherwise, but it’s quite a hard way to work. The songs were all written as they were being recorded. Ned wrote all the lyrics with little tweaks from us—“Change this,” “Lose that verse,” etc.

Backhouse: We were never like the Beatles going, “This is the song—record it, finish it.” These things were growing over a period of three or four years. It was quite a weird creative process, but we had a sense early on we could come up with something quite special.

Crowther: When you make an album and there’s no expectations, you can say exactly what you want. It’s empowering.
 
PS: How long was the music around before Ned started adding lyrics to them?

Backhouse: Lots of the songs I brought in I’d tried with different writers. I’d tried the backing chords and picking for “Next Time Around,” “The Liar” and “New Brighton Sigh” with other writers and they didn’t quite work. I think it’s because I’m not a wordy person and I’m not a singer, so for me, it’s all about the initial feel of the music and where it comes from. “Fernweh” translates to trying to get to a specific place rather than general wanderlust. I think when I write, that initial feel takes me to a specific place. If I’m writing with someone who’s going to try to put words into that place, it has to fit. Whenever I tried to bring these ideas to other people, it was incongruous. The joy of working with Ned is that I’ll play him something and the first thing he gives me back is just, “Yes, that’s it.” That place I had in mind was specific but quite abstract. Ned has made that place accessible to people. He puts people into it. He has context and a story, whereas when I tried to write with other people it just has not fit. That’s why I held the ideas back so long. I thought, “Well, they’re quite special to me, so they have to be right when I do something with them.” Myself and Rob Stringer wrote the melody and chords to what became “New Brighton Sigh.” We gave it to Candie [Payne], who wrote a lovely thing with it, but we didn’t do anything at the time. Like lots of songs, it went by the by. I told her she should keep it cos it’s a nice piece of music, but I gave it to Ned and he went straight in there with this thing about this lovely old seaside town in the Wirral called New Brighton. As soon as he showed me what he was thinking lyrically, I said, “That is it. That’s perfect.” It was like it had always been like that. I just know that piece of music now as “New Brighton Sigh,” which is all you want from the songwriting process, I suppose.

From: https://transatlanticmodern.com/2018/11/12/interview-the-fernweh/

English Teacher - The World’s Biggest Paving Slab

English Teacher only realized they might be becoming famous when someone recently recognized them in a pub. Coming out of Leeds—an industrial city in the north of England and a place renowned for its DIY indie scene—the band is made up of Lily Fontaine (vocals, rhythm guitar, synth), Douglas Frost (drums, vocals), Nicholas Eden (bass) and Lewis Whiting (lead guitar).
Making a swirly mix of awkward indie post-punk rock, they managed just one live show before the pandemic but spent their lockdown busy building up a substantial following both with music fans and the UK music press. Releasing music on the specialist independent label Nice Swan Records, they’ve now found their music. In particular, standout tracks “R&B” and “A55” repeatedly played on BBC’s Radio 1 and Radio 6. Reflecting the anger and mundanity of the past two years, there’s an urgency to their music that’s striking a chord across the country.
Born from the ashes of a dream pop outfit called Frank, English Teacher’s drift to something with a bit more edge has been gradual but organic. “I was listening to a lot of psych like Tame Impala, Melody’s Echo Chamber and Brian Jonestown Massacre, as well as lo-fi artists like Clairo and Mac DeMarco,” Lily explains. “In my third year of university, I started getting into bands like Shame, and I think that’s when I realized I wanted to move away from the dreamier side of things.”
A product of the evergreen Leeds DIY community, (whose alumni includes Yard Act, Pulled Apart By Horses, alt-J and Wild Beasts) the members of English Teacher played in more than one band. Like most of the musicians around the scene’s epicenter, at the legendary live music venue Brudenell Social Club.
“I think having a lot of friends who are also musicians makes the lifestyle easier to cope with. There’s definitely strength in numbers. You can use the wisdom of the crowds when big decisions or tricky situations come along. We’ve all recently left our external music projects to focus on English Teacher. Personally, I struggled to cope with being in multiple projects – being in [my other band] Eades was one of the greatest experiences of my life but trying to work along- side recording and touring with two bands meant that my time and passion was divided between and that’s not fair on anyone. Brudenell Social Club is a second home for us, like barnacles to a ship’s hull. It will be a wrenching experience for us to depart Leeds for the “Big Smoke” [aka London]. I think it will happen though, we’re all keen to explore new cities, scenes and people.”
Whenever there was a relaxing of Covid measures, English Teacher managed to play a decent amount of live shows and festival slots. “It felt like we were touring constantly last year; I saw our managers and the band more times than my Mum,” Fontaine laughs.
“I think it was kind of playing catch-up as we hadn’t played live as English Teacher before the pandemic. We were learning our live set while playing some of the biggest shows of our lives and we became so close as a group of mates that go- ing home for Christmas and not playing or seeing each other for a few weeks felt wrong. It was hard though. I was personally ill from August and kept losing my voice. I think the lack of rest combined with a traveler’s diet meant my immune system couldn’t fight any cold. It was an intense learning experience and I’ve introduced rest, vegetables and exercise into my life so it doesn’t happen again. All I want is to be back touring with the band, It’s my favorite thing to do.”
Now, as they put it, they’re “shitting themselves” about what the next year will bring. Debut EP Polyawkward comes out in April and sees them heading out on their debut headline tour to support it. “Three very special headline sets in some very special cities with songs we never usually play live; a bigger sound and some very special guests. We’re currently writing our debut album as well.” They’re also coy about naming the label they’re signing to, only saying that it’s “produced some of the most iconic faces in music over the last decade. That kind of platform is terrifying to four considerably weak and introverted individuals.”  From: https://marvin.la/young-but-ready-indie-post-punk-rock-group-english-teacher-gaim-major-mometum-post-pandemic/

Custard Flux - The Floating Chamber

Q: How did your musical journey start in Kalamazoo, Michigan?

A: My grandmother had a piano, and there are pictures of me as a toddler by the piano. My dad had a [Lowrey] Genie organ in the ‘70s, and I played that all the time. When I was 16, I begged for my first guitar, and it grew from there. When I was 17, I bought a drum set, and then I started. I wasn’t in band in school, and so during my junior year, a lot of my friends were in band, and they said, “Curvey, you should try playing drums in band,” so I did. I ended up playing in the band for the last two years of school. It was good because it taught me discipline in rehearsals.

Q: What artists influenced you while you were growing up?

A: When my aunt moved to college, my grandmother said she was getting rid of her stuff, and I took all the records. I had records by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, The McCoys, and The Monkees. That was in kindergarten, and then I went through the KISS thing. By the time high school happened, when FM was FM radio before there were commercials, I would hear the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Yes, Genesis, and those types of bands, so I got into prog. Then the ‘80s hit, and punk rock happened, and I was totally into that. I was also into XTC, The Pretenders, and The Psychedelic Furs.

Q: What brought you to Chicago in 1983?

A: After high school I went to Kendall College of Art and Design [in Grand Rapids, Michigan]. It was an awesome school, but I only did one semester because I got an offer from some friends in Chicago who had an all-keyboard band and were opening for [artists] like Lene Lovich, Kraftwerk, and The Human League. And it was the time of the standup drummer, so in 1983, I moved to Chicago to play rock ‘n’ roll.

Q: How did that lead to pursuing music in Detroit and forming Custard Flux?

A: When I was living in Chicago, every time a Detroit band would come [there], or when we would play here in Detroit, the Detroit bands would blow me away. Every band we’d play with in Detroit, I’d think, “Holy shit, these guys are a few steps ahead of what we’re doing.” I always wanted to play with some Detroit musicians, and moving here [in 2017] gave me that. That was my idea, and I thought, “I’m gonna put together a band of Detroit guys with these awesome musicians.”
Of course, I was already in my 50s by then and it’s harder to meet people. One of my friends in Chicago was working at an estate sale, and at the estate sale was an old pump organ. He said, “Curvey, you gotta come and see this pump organ. You’re gonna want it.” And I said, “OK,” and of course I drove down there and fell in love with it.

Q: How did the pump organ spark writing and recording Helium?

A: I bought this pump organ, but the cool thing I thought immediately was, “This thing sounds a lot like a Hammond B-3 [organ].” And then I thought, “Well, that’s probably where the Hammond B-3 was the next step of the electric version of a pump organ.” It has this little paper thing that flips around in the wood and gives it a slight vibrato to the sound. I fell in love with this pump organ, and then my idea was to do an acoustic version of prog.
At the time, I wasn’t thinking about the Canterbury scene with Jethro Tull and these acoustic bands. I was thinking of it from a green perspective without electricity. I thought, “Let’s see what we can accomplish with this,” but nobody was really into it. So I said, “I’m gonna make my first record,” and eight years ago was when I made Helium. It ended up being a double album, and I played everything on there, which wasn’t my intention, but that’s what happened. And it did great.

Q: How did you choose the name Custard Flux for the band?

A: It’s literally cluster fuck—it’s punk rock. The funny thing is the English took it differently. They loved the name [of my former band], The Luck of Eden Hall, because it was named after a goblet and has connections to English folklore. But for the name Custard Flux, they equate it with phlegm or a bad stomach ache. I often hear [English] people saying, “Oh, I’ve just had a bad case of Custard Flux.” There was a Custer Flux [name] out there, but no one had used Custard Flux.

Q: Custard Flux soon evolved from a solo project to a band. How did you bring different musicians into the fold?

A: By the time the second one [2019’s Echo] came out, I grabbed Tim [Prettyman] because he was playing bass and he could play standup bass, which fit into my acoustic [sound]. Tim’s son Walt plays violin, and he’s a really good violin player. I had those two guys, and then I met Vito [Greco], who was back in Chicago. I knew him from the old days, but I’d talked to him about the project, and he was really into it. That’s when it all started to come together. On the second record, I still played a lot of the stuff because I couldn’t find a drummer, but I was starting to bring the band together.
I had a previous band, The Luck of Eden Hall, in Chicago. We toured the U.K. a few times and were on labels in Italy, The Netherlands, and England. The label we were on in England, Fruits de Mer [Records], I met a lot of people through that label. Jay [Tausig] is a guy out in California who plays everything, and I needed a flutist for a song, so I contacted Jay for that.
Mars Williams was the saxophonist in The Psychedelic Furs, and I had met him in Chicago when he played on a couple of Eden Hall records. I thought, “This is acoustic, this is gonna be perfect,” and so Mars was into it and played on two of the records, Oxygen and Phosphorous. And then he passed away from cancer [in 2023].
When The Luck of Eden Hall would go to England, we had a Mellotron player named Andy Thompson. We would bring our guitars, but we needed to find gear over there because we couldn’t afford to ship drums and everything. We found Andy, who had a Mellotron, and we would rent his Mellotron when Eden Hall would go on tour over there. And then I did a solo gig there, and Andy played Mellotron with me. When Custard Flux went over there last summer, he played Mellotron with us, and because of that, I’ve had him play on the records.

Q: Tell me about your creative process for Enter Xenon and how the album came together at Rabbithole Studio in Detroit.

A: I always write the music first, so I’m a guy who sits around either on a piano or with a guitar, and I come up with riffs. My phone is filled with riffs. I will finish a song, and then I will write the lyrics. For recording, it’s several months simply because we’re all busy. For my parts, I throw them down because they’re scratch tracks, and I throw my vocals down. Sometimes I’ll go back in … and double-track the vocals just for effect.
Tim [Prettyman] came here and recorded his basslines. Vito [Greco] came here a couple of times to record his guitar parts, but Tim and Vito both have recording capabilities at home, so they’ll do their stuff and send me the tracks. Nick [Pruett] is very into his drums and has a beautiful drum set. He has microphones, and I have microphones, and between his microphones and my microphones, we have a nice setup to record the drums here in my studio.

Q: Enter Xenon features Vito Greco on guitar, Timothy Prettyman on bass, Nick Pruett on drums, and Andy Thompson on Mellotron. How did they help shape the album’s overall sound?

A: I’ll say, “Here’s the track, so put your bass part on it.” If one of them comes from it at a bizarre angle that doesn’t work with my initial idea, then I’ll say, “No, it has to be more along these lines.” With the drums especially, when I compose, I hear it all in my head, and since I can play everything, I’ve had to tell myself, “Don’t think of a bassline.” Because once I start to think of it it’s there in my head. It’s already become part of the art, so I’ve been very disciplined in not writing anything except my vocal parts and guitar parts.
When Nick comes over, and if he doesn’t feel it right [away], I’ll say, “Oh no, this one has to be a fast-tempo song.” When I write it, it’s not dictating any of those things of what the drums should be doing or what the bass should be doing. And a lot of times, he’ll hear something slower, like a half-tempo, and I’ll say, “No, no, no, that’s double speed.” And then, it changes his whole perception of the song because the music is very detailed. I’m giving people riffs, and they can’t [always] tell what the rhythm is [from those]. And Vito is the one who takes it somewhere else, and he has a Portuguese guitar—he’s really good.

Q: What’s up next for Custard Flux?

A: When we played in England last year, our gig in London, Kavus Torabi opened for us, and he’s the singer in the current incarnation of Gong. When Gong came over and played last year [at The Token Lounge in Westland, Michigan], we opened for them in Detroit, and the whole band loved it. They said, “We want you to open for us when we come back.” They’re doing a West Coast tour now, and we’re doing some shows with them.

From: https://strattonsetlist.com/2025/06/15/custard-flux-enter-xenon-article/

Belleruche - Fuzz Face

Belleruche is a band consisting of Kathrin DeBoer, Ricky Fabulous, and DJ Modest. Formed in the lesser bars and pubs of North London in 2005, the band now record for the Brighton based Tru Thoughts label. Influenced by vintage blues records, punk girl drummers, obscure 60's cover bands and experimental west coast turntablists, they describe their sound as 'Turntable Soul Music'. Belleruche released a series of three extremely limited 7" records on their own Hippoflex Recording Industries label before signing with Tru Thoughts. These individually numbered 45's (with hand screen-printed sleeves) quickly sold out in the UK's independent record stores and attracted a cult following in the UK and Europe, having been hand-distributed by the band at gigs. In 2007 Belleruche signed to Tru Thoughts and their debut album Turntable Soul Music was released in July of the same year, gaining admiring reviews both at home and abroad and becoming the fastest-selling debut album in the label's history. The songs on 'Turntable Soul Music' were written in train carriages, dubious minicabs and pub backrooms around the UK whilst the trio gigged everywhere they could. The songs were then forged and reworked in the band's electrifying live shows. From their initial Sunday residency in the Salmon and Compass in Angel, London to gigs all over Europe, Australia and Asia. 'Turntable Soul Music' is like a weird trawl through a dusty basement full of the best records you've never heard of, whilst a voice you can't quite pin down sings hooks you can't forget. Their live show marks them apart, using only a turntable, sampler, guitar and microphone, they combine to produce something markedly different. Sounding at once both weird and distinctive, but at the same time musical and compelling, they have played at venues as diverse as Montreux Jazz Festival, The Dance arena at Glastonbury, and many underground nightclubs. In October 2008 Tru Thoughts released The Express, the bands second album. Following on from the live songwriting and broken leads ethic of Belleruche's debut, 'The Express' has maybe a tougher sound. Their latest album 270 Stories - including the singles Clockwatching, Fuzz Face and 3 Amp Fuse - was released in October 2010. The band will be playing festival dates this summer and touring the new album in autumn. Kathrin DeBoer raised on a pirate boat sailing the South Pacific Ocean, with only Billie Holiday and Spanky Wilson records for company, Kathrins voice carries the soul of the wind off the cape mixed with the grit of illegal Polynesian rum bars. Lyrics written in bottles cast into the sea found their way into three continents; Kathrin jumped ship and found London. Ricky Fabulous Leo. Baby. Following an adolescence chasing girls and heavy rock bands, Fabulous found himself trapped working for a Maltese gangster in a frozen northern town. Whilst keeping warm locked in a damp basement, he found a stack of quarter inch tapes and discovered the work of Grant Green and Django Reinhardt, which gave him the energy to slip out of town, heading south on a freight car clutching a false identity and a forty-year-old guitar. DJ Modest Growing up in the deep south, in engine oil and mud, Modest discovered hiphop on a stolen radio, sneaking into clubs through broken windows to hear more. Building turntables and mixers from scavenged electronic gear and two stroke engines, he created a soundsystem and played unlawful hiphop parties in strange woodlands to farmers. He coaxes twisted Bluenote solos and broken drums from Shure m44-7s whilst drunk on moonshine.  From: https://www.theaudiodb.com/artist/131555-Belleruche 

Collapsing Scenery - Magic Button

The co-founder of experimental electronic team Collapsing Scenery would prefer people to not dwell on who’s behind the mask. He would like his identity to not become a thing.
But you’ve most certainly heard the erstwhile Reggie Debris’ music with his other band. It’s markedly different than the rhythm-based aggro-skronk the artist builds from vintage electronic gear with collaborator Don Devore as Collapsing Scenery.
The pair just added another few works to their continually fascinating oeuvre, a set of cover songs: Randy Newman’s “Let’s Burn Down the Cornfields,” featuring a wild solo by New York no wave saxophonist James Chance, as well as a take on the proto-punk band the Modern Lovers’ “Modern World.” As is already the norm, Collapsing Scenery issued wild videos to accompany the release — often jarring clips that explore dark themes.
This story will honor the artist’s request not to focus on his work as Mickey Madden, bassist for Maroon 5, even though when performing as Collapsing Scenery he seldom hides his face and doesn’t wear KISS makeup — and despite that, the revelation might add a beguiling new dimension to a prominent act often ignored when contemplating contemporary L.A. music.
“The decision was made before we even started that we wouldn’t go there,” Devore says after Debris politely declines to speak on the subject. They’re sitting next to each other at Cacao Mexicatessen in Eagle Rock. Devore explains that the music they make “is so its own thing that you don’t question anything” regarding the connection. If Debris had his way, it wouldn’t be mentioned at all.
Too late, but the request is admirable. It’s also understandable, considering the act’s rough-hewn, noisy and experimental leanings.
On Monday, Collapsing Scenery will conclude its May residency at Zebulon in Frogtown, the last in a series of immersive gigs that features both visual and audio workouts. The show follows a series of singles, remixes and EPs dating back to the group’s establishment in 2013, each more curious than the next.
The two met in Los Angeles but reconnected in London while each was touring. New York-based Devore had witnessed a lot during his time on the Los Angeles music scene, having played with highflying early ’00s punk band the Icarus Line, indie guitar band the Lilys and rockers Amazing Baby. Most recently, he co-founded the New York-based electronic group Historics.
“It started as a kind of concept,” says Debris, “of just doing something where we were away from our main instruments — actually digging into new gear.” The goal he adds, was “to play electronic music without the computer.”
“Only hardwire,” Devore interjects, saying that it took them “a few years to learn the gear without lying about it.” For warmth, they connect their machines to amplifiers normally reserved for guitars, and when recording they make sure to mike the room as a way to texture the music with natural acoustics.
Visually, they texture their videos with shock and awe. For “Let’s Burn Down the Cornfields,” they enlisted the young director Kansas Bowling, says Debris between bites of a duck taco. Best known for “B.C. Butcher,” a comedic horror film for Troma Entertainment that stars, among others, Kato Kaelin and Rodney Bingenheimer, Bowling harnesses B-movie energy in service of gore.
An all-female reimagining of “Lord of the Flies,” the campy “Let’s Burn Down the Cornfield” video stars a cluster of marooned girls, a pig’s head, blood and buzzing flies. Debris and Devore play war-scarred soldier-observers.
For “Modern World,” also directed by Bowling, Collapsing Scenery plays two uniformed high-schoolers who encounter a knife-wielding, black-robed assassin. He attacks them and slashes their throats. Devil-girl cheerleaders arrive to drag their bodies into a cave, where Satan awaits.
As all this happens, “Modern World” rolls along, its synth-driven rhythm propelling the chorus: “I’m in love with the U.S.A./I’m in love with the modern world/Put down your cigarettes/And drop out of high school.”
Last year the team hired noted photographer and experimental filmmaker Richard Kern to make a typically titillating video. It features Collapsing Scenery standing in an apartment and blankly observing its scantily clad tenant and her lover. It’s disconcerting on any number of levels.
Says Debris, whose identity is easily discoverable with a few minutes of internet sleuthing, “The visual component of the band has been something we’ve been pretty zeroed in since the get-go.” He adds, “We don’t want anything to look haphazard by accident.”  From: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-collapsing-scenery-20180525-story.html

Dead Venus - Lily of the Valley

1. How did you get started as a band?

(Seraina) I formed Dead Venus in early 2015. First I was on the road as a solo artist with Piano and Acoustic Guitar. But then I decided that I need a team to develop my ideas. Dead Venus was never supposed to be a “Singer-Songwriter-Thing” so I started looking for the right people to play my music with. Mike Malloth (drums) answered my call and recommended bassist Andre Gaertner to complete the trio. I still play the keyboards or guitars besides the singing of course.

2. How would you describe your sound?

We have many influences but the important thing for us is to be authentic so we always try to create our very own sound. That’s why we use the term “progressive-rock” for our music. You can’t exactly describe what “progressive-rock” is – it’s just music without any genre specific limits and that’s what we like.

3. What bands/artists would you say have influenced your style of music?

As already written before we are listening to many different styles of music … Bands like Opeth, Pain of Salvation, Rush, Screaming Headless Torsos, Living Color, Pink Floyd, Dave Matthews Band, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Muse and many more… but also artists like Marilyn Manson, Björk and Christina Aguilera were somehow influencing the song writing.

4. Has the rise of YouTube & music streaming helped or hindered you as a band?

At the state of our career we currently are, it’s actually helpful. It’s much easier to get your music heard nowadays because of these platforms and we just use it as a free promotion tool.

5. What do you enjoy doing when you’re not making music?

I love to run or do sports in general or riding a motorbike.

6. What are your future plans musically? Tours?

We’re just finished with the mix of our next album "Flowers & Pain" and can’t wait to release another single of the upcoming album on October 15th! We will also release TWO visualizers for the song which will be online on YouTube on October 22nd. Furthermore we got a very special offer for our fans: Until the new album will be released, a four-piece-EP Package including four new songs as well as four special tracks is available and can be ordered (only) through the band now! We’re also very much looking forward to the Europe tour with Orphaned Land, which hopefully finally can take place in March/April 2022.

From: https://www.gbhbl.com/band-interview-dead-venus/ 

Bhopal's Flowers - Joy Of The 4th

Ok, so Montreal’s Bhopal’s Flowers is another psychedelic indie rock band leaning heavy on the sitar for atmosphere, but wait! Don’t walk away yet, there is a little bit more to it that might meet the eyes and ears at first. Quite different from every Brian Jonestown Massacre clone out there Bhopal’s brings their psych with a delightfully fresh and positive outlook, corresponding with the baby booklet artwork.
And then again, when you really look at that album cover you’ll see exactly what this band is about. There is a deeper connection with hindustani pop culture hidden there, references to ancient mythology, and the joy of newborn life (singer Lionel Pezzano recently became a father). The music is multi layered and harder to pigeonhole than -again- a first glance might tell. There are pure pop songs, dramatic choirs, hazy psych janglers, atmospheric jams, and a subtle influence of “French” pop music that pops up every now and then. Enough to enjoy for open minded music fans therefore. Just don’t be fooled by first impressions. Let’s be honest though, you are reading Weirdo Shrine, you must be ready to walk a little further to take a peak at what is around that corner…

I connected with Lionel Pezzano over the internet, and we luckily we hit it off quite well! We get some new insights about the band, their home town Montreal, and the ephemeral inspiration when making music.

How are you? How has the pandemic period been for Bhopal’s Flowers?

I’m fine, thank you. I really love this time of the year, when fall and winter are spreading their mystic vibes in our lives, meanwhile turning down our daily scenery to a lovely painting.
The pandemic has affected Bhopal’s Flowers regarding our live team, as our former drummer, Jeremy Thoma, has left Canada for good at the very first stage of the pandemic. As many shows were planned and never booked back, it has affected our shows and touring development. Now that I am a bit more free as Joy Of The 4th has been released, I’ll try to focus a bit more on the live aspect of Bhopal’s Flowers music. I’ve always been a lonely boy, so the Covid effect has totally emphasized this tendency to enjoy loneliness, in my personal and music life.  

Can you introduce the band, and how did you meet?

Bhopal’s Flowers was born in France in 2013, with Jeremy Thoma on drums (I used to play with his father actually, who was introduced to me by my uncle, ”Cap”, my musical mentor), Eric Steiger on guitar, Lorenzo Vespa on drums, Marlène B. on keyboards. The line up has changed when Jeremy and I moved to Canada, we hired Blandine on backing vocals / percussions and Jonathan St Laurent on bass. Since Jeremy has left Canada, he has been replaced by Sergio d’Isanto (from ”Bye Parula”), and Antoine Marquet (who drives ”Antoine Aspirine”) on guitar / keyboard.

What can you tell me about your musical backgrounds?

I’ve been learning the guitar at the age of 11 with a country musician, Jo Luthringer, supervised by my uncle, who taught me an eclectic repertoire. I quickly composed my own music and drove a band entitled ”Friends Of P.” from 1997 to 2006. We used to play  new-wave indie rock, between Radiohead and The Cure. I then studied classical music, meanwhile composing electro rock and Indo-Persian electronica for a while. I went deep into Persian classical music (on the târ and the sétâr) and Hindustani classical music (on the sitar).
Just before leaving France to Canada, I started a trio named Youngstown, a country band with the classical rock structure (as Nirvana or The Police) guitar / bass/  drums. We developed a very unique sound due to our influences and the fact that we were very few on stage in contrary to usual country formation with fiddle, pedal steel, two guitars etc …
On the side, Album after album, I developed the skills of a music engineer and later, at the Mandragore studio in Montréal, 5 years as an employee, and nowadays as a happy partner.
During all this time, I never stopped composing and recording my own music, but many albums were never released for multiple reasons. A dozen albums, produced and recorded are sleeping on my desktop, waiting to be released one of these days.

What does a regular day in your life look like?

I am teaching music during the daytime, and recording music at the studio during the night time, which leaves very few spots for sleeping and getting rest. In the middle of these two activities, I am having fun with my little 21 months boy, and practicing the sitar, which requires a lot of discipline.  I try to read as much as I can, sometimes on the lunch break, sometimes at night, mainly anthroposophic readings by Rudolf Steiner. During the weekends, I can focus deeply on hindustani music, as the ragas we learn are linked with a specific daytime, I grab the opportunity to practice ragas that I don’t have the chance to play during the busy week (mostly early morning & mid afternoon ragas). My life is fulfilled with music and all my daily thoughts are heading to this art, whether they are philosophical or practical.

What is the story about the band name? Did the Bhopal disaster play a role in choosing it?

It is indeed related with the Bhopal disaster. I didn’t know about it when I was young. I was 20,  when I concretized my interest into hindustani music. At that time, my music was a bit much happier than when I was younger, but still with a melancholic spleen at its bottom. Bhopal’s Flowers reflected to me this tendency, beauty that grows on the pain.

Where do you live and what is the environment like for musicians like you?

I live in Montreal since 2016. Before that, I used to live in the East of France, a province called Alsace (the most beautiful !! haha). I am sorry for that boring answer but I have no idea about musician’s environment as I am not connected to this community. I know some people, some musicians, but we’re not very close. That is not a will from me to be disconnected to the musicians community, just a simple fact. The fact that I have a regular job on the side, keeps my away from musicians who generally have more free time to hangout together during the daytime. But artistic life is very developed here in Montreal.

What is your main aim with your music, is it complete artistic expression, or an escape from the every day world? (or something else ;))

Both I think ! The every day world is an illusion, the real world is made out of vibration and spirit. I try to reach the invisible through music. It then hits the material world, and gives me back everything I have: my wife, my family, my friends, my job, my skills, all of this happen because of my music effort. Regarding my bank account or my popularity, it looks like I am not making music for fame or money, and it is fine like this, even though it is tough to deal with my daily job and artistic ambitions. To me, music is a permanent quest and perpetual enjoyment.

Can you tell me about how you go about composing and recording songs?

For Bhopal’s Flowers, I always compose with a 12 strings guitar, or with the sitar. It can be a riff on the 12 strings, as well as an harmonic chord progression that hits my mind. Once I get one of these elements, I go pretty fast in general. I then spend more time to hire a drummer to play the parts I programmed and mixing properly the whole stuff. When I compose on the sitar, I try to find a good melody or concept from a specific raga (as raga are based on scales). Believe me or not, I compose a lot of songs meanwhile teaching music to my students: when you play very simple things and really pay attention to the beauty of simplicity, you have a much better accurate vision of beauty then when you play loud at 140 bpm.

What is “the dream” when it comes to being an artist?

As music doesn’t come from Earth but from the spiritual region of the Devachan, and is translated by musicians and composers for our physical world (even if they do it unconsciously). My dream is to write music that is the closest from the Devachan’s one. I always heard that Devachanic music could be represented by a giant gong, and that our Earthly music is just the shadow of its magnificence. My dream is that my music looks the closest as possible from the Devachanic one. It takes at least one life !

What should the Weirdo Shrine reader do after reading this interview?

They should ask to themselves: ”Why can’t I remember the Devachanic music whereas my astral body and my self spend all their nights there, and that I have resided there between each reincarnation?”

From: https://weirdoshrine.wordpress.com/2022/11/09/review-qa-bhopals-flowers-joy-of-the-4th-2022-sound-effect-records/