boygenius are on the cover of Loud And Quiet 158
Out next week – subscribe now to receive an exclusive flexi disc from Robbie & Mona too
We’re delighted to have boygenius as our latest cover stars. The indie supergroup of Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker are back after several years away with their excellent debut album. We sent Gemma Samways out to meet them in New York, where she got to know their unique creative and personal dynamic while getting the inside story on The Record. It’s a great piece, befitting its subject matter: three bona-fide superstars.
L&Q subscribers will also receive another exclusive flexi disc, the second in what we’re planning to make an ongoing series. This time, experimental pop duo Robbie & Mona have kindly given us ‘Tina’s Leather’, from their hypnotic new album Tusky, as a one-off in this physical format (on clear acetate with violet foil). Ian Roebuck also spoke to them in depth inside the issue. All existing subscribers will receive one, and new subscribers too, until we run out.
Elsewhere in Issue 158: Jim Jarmusch and Carter Logan are In Conversation about their drone-rock project SQÜRL; electronic pop innovator Yaeji talks rage, suppression and identity with Skye Butchard; James Acaster tells us what his favourite song actually is; James Holden guides us the long way around his trip from ’90s Leicestershire raves to mind-expanding ‘dancing music’ in the present day; Yo La Tengo share their favourite under-appreciated artists for The Rates; and Mega Bog shows us around her LA home for My Place.
There are also interviews with a load of new artists, of course, who we hope are about to step up to the next level, including Lankum, McKinley Dixon, Zulu, Lucinda Chua, Fran Lobo, Comfort and Water From Your Eyes, plus ‘Taylor Swift’ offers us some ‘exclusive’ ‘business’ ‘advice’.
It’s all out next week. Subscribe to get it.
This month’s limited edition flexi disc is Robbie & Mona’s ‘Tina’s Leather’
Robbie & Mona: “The first initial spark of ‘Tina’s Leather’ came whilst we were sat on a beach on Ios island in Greece listening to the Betty Blue soundtrack by Gabriel Yared. Ellie at this time wrote in her diary: The sparkle of the sea harmonises with a petrol glamour and a 1980s mystery in the synthesiser. I want to make a song of this feeling.
“The story goes, Tina is a ghost, remembering her death where she jumped out the window during a holiday in Greece. We wanted to make a song which both lyrically and sonically told this story.
“It was the last song we wrote for the album so it kind of feels like it is the exploding dying star of the record universe.”