Unpaid Intern’s new video harks back to simpler times. When going into the corner shop for some crisps meant £1 could probably bag you some 20p Space Raiders, Chipsticks, Onion Rings, maybe even stretch to some Frazzles. Good, honest, unfussy classic crisps. None of your Thai sweet chilli kettle crisps nonsense.
Anyway, the Manchester foursome are celebrating those humble snacks with the clip they’ve made for ‘World Cup of Crisps’. The track is taken from the EP, ‘Unrivalled Work Ethic’, which they released at the end of 2016 on a limited edition cassette via Havana Tapes. You can also still listen to it here.
Unpaid Intern are playing some shows, too:
The Stag’s Head, Hackney, London – 7 April Coachwerks, Brighton – 8 April White Hotel (with Fruit Tones), Manchester – 15 April
There are few albums that have more play on our stereo so far this year than Timber Timbre’s ‘Sincerely, Future Pollution’.
It’s their fourth, and it’s a corker.
Derek Robertson described it in his review as “stylishly atmospheric” and out on Friday in the UK via City Slang.
Anyway, they’ve just shared a new song from it, ‘Grifting’, which is a bit Talking Heads, a bit Pink Floyd.
It’s also has this snazzy new animated video, directed by Elenor Kopka, who has this to say about it:
“When I first heard the song Grifting it instantly made me think of a swampy seaside village, set somewhere in the 1980s, and a group of people meeting up for a shady basement match of poker. Later on I got very inspired by tarot imagery and the aesthetics of fortune telling and tried to construct a game packed with that sort of occult symbolism. The video ended up becoming an obscure card game session that brings back unwanted memories.”
Vondelpark were a trio (they might still be) from south east London whose songs were warm yet cool. The vocals were buried beneath hazy beats. Their ‘Sauna’ EP was particularly good. Lewis Rainsbury is/was the frontman – along with bandmates Bailey and Matt – but he now has a new project.
Again, it’s leaving a bit to the imagination. They’re called Lifestyle. All that exists to date is this blurry photograph and a couple of tracks.
This new one, ‘Always More’, is pretty decent. The twilight sound is reminiscent of Massive Attack or Burial, perhaps. They’ve got a mixtape coming out soon called ‘Calm FM’, which sounds nice. For now that’s all we know. Maybe calling the number on their Bandcamp would divulge more information. Oh, and you can buy the first track there for £45.
Music gets made in some extraordinary circumstances.
If you haven’t already, read our recent interview with psych-rock trio Gnoomes, from Perm, Russia, who overcame prison and conscription to make their superb album ‘Tschak!’.
Fellow countryman Philipp Gorbachev makes an altogether different type of music, but there are parallels in their stories. Namely, the struggles they’ve had with the Russian authorities to get their expressive product heard.
Gorbachev is a well-known name on Moscow’s underground electronic music scene, and holds a regular night at one of the city’s most innovative clubs ARMA17. However, the police regularly shut down their parties.
“Unfortunately Russian officials don’t want this to take place, so it is now a real fight for existence,” explains Gorbachev. “Anyway, I value so much the residency I have at ARMA17 on Sunday, it is like my Berghain: colourful, democratic, complex, warm and musically diverse.”
Back in 2014, the DJ and producer, put out a debut album in 2014 (‘Silver Album’) and got asked by Boiler Room to perform it. He decided to do something different, put together a band, who he advertised for on Craigslist. Now, he’s made a whole album with them. It’s called ‘I Don’t Give A Snare’.
It’s produced, somewhat unexpectedly, by Paul Leary from Butthole Surfers. The sound is raw and experimental. Listen to the first track ‘Public Joe’.
Philipp Gorbachev & The Naked Man release their new album on 2 June on ARMA. Pre-order it here.
That makes it sound like Sub Pop have begrudging kept this band in a deal after a couple of okay albums. Of course, they were probably very happy with – ahem – ‘No Regrets’ (2013) and – ahem, ahem – ‘Time To Go Home’ (2015).
They were good, but not great – not like Chastity Belt‘s forthcoming ‘I Used To Spend Too Much Time Alone’ (out June 2nd via Sub Pop’s Hardly Art imprint).
It’s the kind of DIY indie record to put on to dig yourself out of a bad day, especially the opening ‘Different Now’, which we posted a couple of week’s ago. That track is followed by this one on the album, ‘Caught In A Lie’.
If you don’t like either of these, Chastity Belt might not be for you. Although that’s what people said to me when I wasn’t bowled over by the bands’ previous albums, and here we are…
Every year, in September, POP Montreal festival takes place in Canada. They put on hundreds of bands, thousands of people turn up, and it’s all about showcasing Canadian talent (plus, some international heavy hitters). It’s doesn’t have a bad track record either, Arcade Fire and Grimes have both played in the past.
Anyway, this summer POP Montreal is heading overseas bringing two Canadian acts to the UK for a bunch of gigs in Wrexham, Brighton, Liverpool, Glasgow and London. Pierre Kwenders is playing, but so too, is Mozart’s Sister.
Caila Thompson-Hannant released her album ‘Field of Love’ via the impeccable Arbutus earlier this year.
This is our favourite song of hers ‘Moment 2 Moment’. She says it’s a “bratty, twee love song”. Just check out the video. It’s how all pop videos look before they’re aggressively polished.
On the final Wednesday of each month Resonance FM are generous enough to welcome us on to their airwaves to play an hour of our new favourite new music.
If you like what you hear, we’ve put all of the previous shows together to listen back.
On this month’s show we played a range of stuff, from Yorkshire band Drahla – only the second or third track they’ve shared – through to a song from our current magazine cover star Jarvis Cocker and ‘Ice Cream For Main Course’ from his current project ‘Room 29’ with Chilly Gonzales.
This is was the tracklist, and listen back below:
Drahla – Faux Text Steve Lacy – Dark Red Bad Breeding – The More The Merrier Chastity Belt – Different Now Kevin Morby – Come To Me Now Jarvis Cocker and Chilly Gonzales – Ice Cream For Main Course Girlhood – Say It Matthew Herbert (Brexit) Big Band – One Life Snapped Ankles – I Want My Minutes Back
For a couple of years Ho99o9‘s live reputation has proceeded them. Eaddy from the New Jersey duo (now based in LA) often performs just wearing his socks. They talked about all the hell they’ve raised in our cover story interview with them from 18 months ago. Now, they’re about to release their debut album.
Recently announced, it’s called ‘United States of Horror’ and will be coming out via their Toys Have Powers label on 5 May.
After they put out the album’s title track, they’ve just shared a second song from it – the pretty wildly different ‘New Jersey Devil’. It’s a sweet country-folk song about lost love. Of course, it isn’t. It’s utterly brutal. Wait until you hear the rest of the album, in part, produced by TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek – it’s all over the fucking shop.
Few people would argue that getting a Facebook Message is better than getting a hand-written letter. That’s the old fashion luxury that Bristol/London-based label Art Is Hard keep alive with their monthly postcard singles club. It does what it says. Each month they mail you a new single, and at the end of the year they turn four of their 12 releases into playable postcard-shaped singles.
Next up, they’re releasing the debut single from brand new band Factory Seconds.
It’s still early days for this lot. There’s four of them, they’re from London and they take their name from the old factory where they rehearse.
Their first single is called ‘Caught In The Layers’ – and it’s a big, shoegaze-pop epic.
Bass player and vocalist Katie Wilkinson has this to say about it: “I was I recovering from a bit of a mental breakdown and was starting to feel well enough to channel my energy into writing music again and this was one of the first songs I wrote. I’ve only been in angry punk bands until now so this is by far the most ‘pop’ song I’ve written as well as being the most personal. It was almost like the mental breakdown was supposed to happen to soften me up a bit…perhaps.”
Factory Seconds have a few shows coming up, too:
The Lexington, London (with Cosmic Strip) – 31 March Lion and Coffee Records for Record Store Day, London – 22 April Paper Dress Vintage, London – 3 May
