Johnny Dowd will be on tour in the UK & The Netherlands to promote the release of his Pictures From Life's Other Side album on vinyl. A Kickstarter campaign for that release in currently underway. It will be a 2LP with the full album, plus newly recorded acoustic versions on Side 4. The aim is to raise €10.000 (€3905 pledged so far, with 19 days to go).
A Prince show recorded January 20, 2007 a during his Las Vegas residency in 2006-2007 will be released as 3LP (9400 copies on crystal blue curaçao vinyl) and 2CD (2700 copies) for Black Friday (November 27). Lots of songs from his 3121 and Musicology, plus classics from his back catalogue and a few covers.
Note for those with FOMO: this show can also be found on the Blu-Ray that comes with the expanded reissue of 3121, which will be available on December 6.
Amsterdam-based Hungarian indie crooner Kristóf Hajós teamed up with like-minded American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jesse Blake Rundle for his new album Dark Matter, Light Heart. Rundle wrote and performed nearly all of the music, providing a safe space for all the doubts and fears that Hajós put into his words.
After tackling ageing on 6:00PM and feelings of displacement on Geography, he is now going for a lighter, more contented and self-assured approach while confronting life's roadblocks and pitfalls. Naming one of his songs Bravo, You Made Me Cry sums up that attitude quite nicely. And laughing at yourself with Oh Hope, You Whore can be helpful as well.
Toronto quartet Bad Waitress have left the constraints of punk far behind on their In The Hollow album. The anger and angst are still there, but they cast a far wider net both musically and lyrically. Naming one of their songs I Wish I Was A Mars Volta is a dead giveaway. They have inserted elements from art-rock, noise and progressive metal into their sounds, plus quite a few good old power chords, as the solid bit adventurous backing for songs that deal with gender and sexuality, growing up in the sticks and rampant consumerism.
They cover a lot of ground, running the risk to take on more than they can chew, but somehow it all fits. It has been five years since their previous album No Taste, after which the band members went their separate ways before regrouping and discussing what they had learny in between. That pause plus life experience did wonders for the intensity and far more mature subjects that have found their way into their art.
Chicago-based Josh Chicoine (The M's, Cult Canyon), Edward Anderson (1900s, Mazes), Colby Starck (Mar Caribe, Bobby Conn), and Glenn Rischke (AM Slingers, Bora Bora) are early risers, taking a walk with Mist Into the Morning, the new single by their Temp Wishes. They take it slow in '70s funk kind of way, serving up a leisurely mix of percussion, bells and whistles, and the sounds of the great outdoors. They obviously know where they are going, but there is no need to name a definite destination.
Their self-titled debut album will be released on vinyl on November 6 via Sanzimat and Rattleback Records.
Anglo-French melancholic pop trio The Gentle Spring show off their education by quoting Shakespeare's famous line "If music be the food of love, play on" spoken by Orsino, the Duke of Illyria, in Twelfth Night at the start of the video for their new single Down with Love.
It is a nice contrast make a song sounding a tad optimistic while being seriously disappointed. Lead singer Emilie Guillaumot nailed those mixed emotions rather well. Love is likened to a game of scrabble and sometimes one might stuck with a subpar set of letters.
Steven Wilson has shared a video for A Basket of Bees, played live (sort of) in the studio with Randy McStine (guitars, backing vocals) and Russell Holzman (drums, percussion) and Shelby Logan Warn (backing vocals), a pastoral prog rocker veering into metal at some point in order to confuse the punters. It is a track from his new album Requiem for a Village.
Japanese duo Barbican Estate quickly made a name for themselves in the UK underground scene after their moved to London in 2022. On their new single Atlas they cherrypicked drone elements of synth-driven downtempo and post-rock on top of a motorik back beat.
It is easy to picture them on a small stage bathed in strobe lights as they stretch the song even further than the six minutes of this studio effort. Too much of a good thing? Not for fans of the Durutti Column and Can, who will have no trouble let themselves be transfixed, with a few choice guitar notes to break the spell every now and then.
Australian noise duo Alex O'Toole (drums) and Simeon Bartholomew (guitar) are about creating music on the spot n000000000 project, as an outlet besides their usual forays into math rock and post-rock in various bands in the Sydney underground. After performing all improvised live shows they decided to lock themselves for an album, so that a wider audience can find out what they are all about.
Careful listening to each other when embarking on such a journey is key, because it would all fall apart if they wandered off into different directions. O'Toole and Bartholomew have developed an instant rapport, enabling them to lock into a groove and make a sharp turn that they did not know was coming until it presented itself as a logical step for the piece.
A Kickstarter campaign has been launched to release Johnny Dowd's Pictures From Life's Other Side album on vinyl. It will be a 2LP with the full album, plus newly recorded acoustic versions on Side 4:
With their amalgam of jazz, soul and hip-hop German-American quartet Salomea made friends in both genres, and quite a few outside those two three. On their latest album axxxis the band's singer and composer Rebekka Salomea leads her band through emotional minefields, snapshots taken during night life and of course the wicked ways of love. While the subject matter has been covered umpteenth times, she has found new ways to tell the tales that need to be told.
With a band that can follow every subtle turn she throws at them, with drummer Leif Berger working a double shift as the driving force and safety net, Rebekka Salomea is ready to make a mark outside Germany. She has a voice that loses none of its power when she turns it down to a whisper. This is their fourth album, so putting on an one hour plus show with high-quality songs just outside the mainstream is no problem at all.
Another Motörhead live show will be released as a 2LP - on aqua blue vinyl - for Black Friday (November 27). The Löst Tapes Vol. 8: Live at Margate" was recorded on November 5, 1984 @ Winter Gardens in Margate, UK. The show became available in May this year as a digital release.
Frank Black (a.k.a. Black Francis) performed at the London Palladium on February 6, 2025 as part of the anniversary tour for his Teenager of the Year, album. The Pixies frontman played the album in full, as well as five tracks from his self-titled debut album. The show is being released as a 3LP (2200 copies) and 2CD (1300 copies) for Black Friday (November 27).
Tuscon, AZ based alt-rock trio Female Gaze throw a spanner in the works to kick off their linea nigra. The short instrumental the future is already hurting me starts with birdsong and takes a sharp left with a power chord that sounds almost Shirley Bassey's Goldfinger segueing into morose, pondering bass part setting the stage for the title track, a meandering track with just a hint of Tex Mex.
They are not afraid to push repetition to the limit, creating tension and only offering release when it suits them. Female Gaze create their own safe spaces and don't welcome outside visitors with open arms. A song like mamaya may contain surf elements, but its undertow is treacherous, with singer Nelene DeGuzman acting a captivating indie rock siren. This is an album that is an emotional roadmap and the sign-posted song titles along the way make it clear that some of the destinations are not particularly wholesome. Get on board and get lost.
An expanded version of the 1971 film Jimi Plays Berkeley will be shown at The Regent Theatre in Arlington on October 22. It features extra 15 minutes of previously unseen footage from the shows at the Berkeley Community Theatre on May 30, 1970, showing bits the Jimi Hendrix Experience performing Voodoo Child (Slight Return), Machine Gun and Hear My Train A Comin'.
Simon Karolis, nom-de-plume of Dutch musician Arend Jan van der Scheer, has come out of hibernation with Furious Racehorse, the lead single for his forthcoming album Where To Find Back The Flow. He was the lead singer of LPG, an indie band who made three well-received albums between 2005 and 2012. He has been flying solo since then.
Currently working as a teacher in The Hague he had to squeeze in the recordings of his new songs between his day job and domestic chores. The soft-spoken folk-tinged single is about dreaming about bigger things, but being held back by reality. Spoiler: he is the horse and he does manage to break free in the end. Ilse Hamelink played a wonderful melancholic yet powerful violin part. He shot the video in the dunes near The Hague, with his son Isaac lending a hand.
Ramones completists might want to pick up the Subterranean Jungle Demos LP that will be released on Black Friday (27 November) on yellow vinyl (5500 copies). Marky Ramone, who was dealing with alcoholism then. was fired as the band's drummer during the recording sessions. Four years later he was back in the saddle and stayed on until the band's final show in 1996.
Dutch folk-tinged slowcore duo Coaster are dipping their feet into slightly louder and harsher music on their new album A Happy Sad. Guitarists Paul Dijkman and Bart Appel let their instruments growl a bit more every now and then, with Dust and Fear as the prime examples. Bedroom pop meets shoegaze, once again proving that the sum can be greater than its parts.
Their music is about connection, an invitation to step into their world wherein it is safe to dream and worry without anyone judging you. That could have led to a faceless, sugarcoated collection of songs, but their quiet intensity pulls the listener back in. A Happy Sad is gentle and sturdy at the same time.
Jazz pianist Bill Evans played with his trio in Lugano, Switzerland, in 1967 and in Pescara, Italy, in 1969. Eddie Gomez played bass at both shows. Arnie Wise was on drums in Lugano and Marty Morell had taken over in Pescara. Recordings from these shows have been rounded up for the 2LP Across The Alps - The Lugano & Pescara Concerts which be released on Black Friday (November 27). 3750 copies worldwide. Track listing not yet known.
An unreleased Marianne Faithfull concert will be released as a 2LP (1800 copies worldwide) on Black Friday (November 27). Eye Communication: Live at The Wax Museum was recorded in Washington D.C. on October 2, 1983 and features songs from Broken English, Dangerous Acquaintances and A Child's Adventure. They could have included a couple of filler tracks fro Side D from another show from that tour instead of "an etching in Marianne’s handwriting of an excerpt from William Blake's poem The Tyger, which she recites in Eye Communication."
Side A
1. Times Square [4:53]
2. Tenderness [4:05]
3. Brain Drain [5:58]
4. Blue Millionaire [6:00]
Side B:
1. Guilt [6:28
2. Falling From Grace [3:37]
3. Eye Communication [4:28]
Side C:
1. Working Class Hero [6:48]
2. Rising (MF Fernando Saunders) [7:25]
3. Broken English [5:57]
Side D:
Etched
