The multi-instrumentalist and composer has been making music for well over two decades, but this album is Tara Jane O’Neil’s first under her initials, TJO. Still, it very much continues the idiosyncratic and individual vision that has come to mark her oeuvre. Released earlier this month by Orindal Records, the album is a collection of covers traversing the radio smash hits of O’Neil’s youth, a process that began in the aftermath of her brother’s sudden death.

Playing songs from 1983, it turns out, can be a source of comfort amid grief. From Bananarama and Boy George through Leonard Cohen and INXS, Tara Jane O’Neil took a collection of the biggest tracks of the year and began to reimagine them, using bass, electric guitar and simple electronic instruments. “This album is a mixtape, it is homage and it is distortion of sounds that were around in 1983,” O’Neil says, “around the home I shared with my brother Brian.”

Unsurprisingly, the results are not faithful recreations, but they also retain something of the spirit of the originals. There is no irony here, no attempt to transmogrify the feelgood pop energy into absurd reflections of grief. O’Neil pulls some of the tracks spectral thin and diaphanous, gives others a newfound sense of space and weight, but ensures that all have some line back to their own joyful history. A reconciliation between the sad, weird present and its own happy past. And, furthermore, the realisation that no line divides them. That things have always been sad and weird and good, and likely always will.

‘Crying Game’ sees its richer hues stripped away, the TJO take like a Polaroid of the original, cracked and faded and full of the fondness of a found thing, while ‘Cruel Summer’ is the desert twin of its urban counterpart—Bananarama’s playful bounce now just a shimmering mirage on the horizon. Cohen’s knowing croon on ‘Everybody Knows’ is rendered similarly ghostlike, Duran Duran’s ‘The Chauffeur’ given a devotional light, but the peculiar thing is not what feels different about these songs, but what stays the same.

For each track is familiar, as though hits of a certain size are spells unbroken by meddling. Spells designed to worm their way into our brains and lie dormant. “Pop music is sticky,” O’Neil says. “It can stick on you for 30 years without you knowing. It can stick you right back into a room or a car. Commercial radio is powerful like smell.” Take ‘Happy House’, announcing itself as the Siouxsie And The Banshees classic from the first peals of guitar, as though it has been sitting with you all along, waiting to be activated by a handful of notes.

But what Tara Jane O’Neil makes clear across the record is that pop music can do more than merely persist. Through some witchcraft, it begins to preserve that around it too, as though charged by fate or happenstance to protect the conditions in which it first emerges.  Pop music as an embalming mechanism, a process of fossilisation. A medium in which life can be trapped, outside of time and space. Songs for Peacock is not some lesson in sugary nostalgia, no longing glance into the utopian past. For there is no past, certainly no utopia, just life as it was lived and these songs that still encode it.

Songs for Peacock is out now via Orindal Records and you can get it from the TJO Bandcamp page.

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What this translates as is a really nice collection of lo-fi DIY pop songs. Stand-outs include Libbie 2000’s ‘sister saint’ cover, which introduces some crunchy guitar to smooth bedroom pop, and ‘be good’ by thanks for coming, which brings to mind Long Neck.

There are also appearances from WTD fav Tall Friend, who covers Waxahatchee’s ‘Brother Bryan’, bedbug, who provide a take on ‘Troubled Medium’ by P.S. Eliot, and Deer Scout who covers ‘clumsy’ in her usual delicate style.

All 22 tracks are great, so why not make a small donation and check them all out? You’ll probably find your new favourite band in the process. Proceeds of the project will be split between between two great causes: the Standing Rock Sioux of North and South Dakota to help with their protest against the Dakota access pipeline, and the council of American-Islamic relations’ New York chapter, which has a particularly important role given recent political developments.

You can get Long Island Ladies #1 as a name-your-price download from their Bandcamp page. Remember all donations go to great causes! They have also teamed up with our prolific pals at Z Tapes to give the compilation a physical release. Head to the Z Tapes Bandcamp page to order one!

P.S. For more politically motivated music, check out our post to support the Women’s March, and last week’s generous donation from Bandcamp and a whole host of kind artists (many of whom’s individual donations are still ongoing).

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With an array of styles and influences across the twenty-three songs, there truly is something for everyone. Try Isabel Rex‘s oddly melancholic ode to amusing genetic copies of famous people, MagicPerm’s blissed-out memorial of a forgotten Toon Disney gem and WTD favs Nice Legs‘ surf rock anthem for everybody’s favourite infant puppets. Or maybe you’d prefer Queer Jane’s take on those meddling kids, Lake Michigan‘s bummed-out nod to a semi-fictional Will Smith or Ainsworth’s tribute to Mister Rodgers (and his inspirational acceptance speech)?

Elsewhere, Casper Heyzeus attack their pizza-loving effort with the hyperactive energy of child actors in action figure TV commercials, IZE offer something strange and sultry enough to make Lynch himself proud and Pet Cemetery takes the theme of your teenage angst and makes it seem insular and strange, a song for one of Orange County’s outsiders who never appeared on screen because they were always locked in their gloomy bedroom playing records.

In other words, this is a near-enough perfect compilation for those of us who grew up under the ever-present bombardment of photon-based entertainment. Listen to the whole thing below and let nostalgia burn through the white noise of your image narcosis:

Artwork by Mimi Jaffe

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Luckily for us, Lauren Rearick from The Grey Estates seems out to disprove the Bad Winners/Good Losers notion. After fighting through the formidable gauntlet of macho vanity and arrogance that makes up the music industry (see also: college, school, life), she has made her blog into one of the best, most consistent sites covering independent music right now. Mirroring her own attitude, she covers music made out of necessity, bands fighting a multitude of prejudistic blindspots because to not-fight is not an option. It might not be overtly militaristic or political, but the very act of persevering in the effort to create/promote such music is a strong statement. This sort of quiet commitment might be often overlooked but the importance of recognising and celebrating it cannot be underestimated. As if to mark her achievement and symbolise what it stands for, Rearick has teamed up with Negative Fun Records to put out Sugar Rush, a compilation of covers featuring female and gender-neutral musicians. The aim of the album is simple – to try to address the balance (or lack thereof) represented in contemporary music. As she explains:

“A glance at festival lineups, year-end lists and favorite bands are often missing a huge ingredient – female and gender-neutral acts. Sugar Rush was spurred by the idea of giving these individuals a voice, and introducing listeners to their sounds in a most unique way – with cover songs.”

Sugar Rush features contributions from some WTD favs, including Boosegumps, PONY and Kississippi, as well as a whole host of bands and artists that we’re unfamiliar with, just waiting to be explored. Claire Morales and Jena Pyle kick things off with a saccharine rendition of Pasty Cline’s ‘Strange’, the heartbreak flowing thick as molasses, while Kississippi’s cover of Sixpence None the Richer’s ‘Kiss Me’ is minimal and spacious, dreamy as a lovestruck gaze. Boosegumps reinvents Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Everywhere’ as a pretty and understatedly resplendent bedroom pop song and Seattle-based dream pop band Sundae Crush provide a quietly sweet take on ‘Unpretty’ by TLC.

The B side sees a change of mood, as Rearick puts it:

“We thought of the A-side as the sugar-y side, the sweet candy you enjoy before the B-side, when all that sugar begins rushing through your veins, leaving you ready to dance, party and load up on more sugary goodness.”

PONY begin the transition into upbeat danciness, updating Blink 182’s ‘Feelin This’ into a sharp and dynamic shoegazey pop song, before Susan take on The Violent Femmes’ ‘I Held Her In My Arms’, stumbling across a verse which could be used to sum up the compilation as a whole: “I will not kill /  the one thing I love / In this world of wreckage, I look above / Help me, Lord, help me understand / What it means to be a boy and what it means to be a man”. Next, Pearl Earl offer a brash take on Devo, Mommy Long Legs bring their familiar energy to The Cramps and Alright race through a Bouncing Souls number. The penultimate track sees Philadelphia’s The Pretty Greens cover Lucille Mathis’ ‘(I’m Not Your) Regular Woman’, before Daddy Issues finish on a cool, dreamy version of ‘Riot Grrrl’ by Keel Her.

It’s likely there was no small amount of anxiety, doubt and stress involved in the making of Sugar Rush and The Grey Estates as a whole, so it’s no exaggeration to consider the whole time-draining, energy-sapping endeavour a noble quest indeed. While nobody is naive enough to think that one compilation and a dozen artists will ever be enough to win the big fight, it’s just possible that an accumulation of such small victories could eventually build into the coup de grâce for this discriminatory industry. So, if you are in a position to strike a blow of any size but need some reassurance and motivation, take a look at Rearick and then rush head-on into an attack of your own. Because make no mistake, a fight this certainly is.

Sugar Rush is out today (the 29th February) and you can buy it now via Negative Fun Records’ Bandcamp. If you need further convincing, the good people over at The Le Sigh are streaming it in full.

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Fevered Press, Fevered Certainty is an independent press run by two non-binary radicals in Michigan. Their aim is to highlight voices on the margins, and they do so by publishing really cool zines and books. They have recently published the first volume of The Epoch Fanzine, which “includes photos, interviews with collective members, essays, dance, and song covers by the qt n friendly community surrounding the collective”. The blurb gives you good reason to grab a copy right away:

“read to feel posi, read to feel closer to yr fav bands n artists”

Perhaps the best bit about the zine are the covers of songs by Epoch faves Told Slant, Small Wonder and Eskimeaux by some really cool and talented people. They serve as 1) cool new takes on tracks I really like and 2) introductions to artists I’m not at all familiar with. What’s not to like?

First up is Leor Miller (of Cipinko), who transforms Told Slant’s ‘Lack’ with fuzzy lo-fi guitars and deadpan vocals, cultivating a sort of Bret Easton Ellis-style so-cool-he’s-numb kinda vibe. Then Detroit’s Chill Corea brings a lo-fi synth pop rendition of Eskimeaux’s ‘Alone At the Party’, think Casiotone for the Painfully Alone meets Free Cake For Every Creature.

The second Told Slant cover comes courtesy of Pitsburgh’s Unraveler, who chooses ‘Ohio Snow Falls’ and provides a version which manages to capture the awkward twitchy passion that makes Told Slant so good. Michigan-based Anywaves also cover Told Slant, with a guitar-less take on ‘Parking Lots’, complete with that slightly desperate warbling crack to the vocals, before alone@home wrap things up with ‘Pocket Full of Posies’, a track which the band describe as “characteristic Eskimeaux, with prettiness and sadness in every line”.

You can get the fanzine via the Fevered Press website, and download the songs on a name-your-price basis over at their Bandcamp page. Now excuse me while I go listen to all these artists’ back catalogues.

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Old Earth

“Has this trance-like quality that is almost impossible to describe…It’s music that isn’t satisfied with making pretty sounds in the background, that gets right to the root of things” – New EP …until they’re called sees Old Earth in typically scintillating form.

The Washboard Abs

“Sad but in a cosy, reassuring way…like being alone in an empty room on a rainy afternoon, when the not-quite-twilight has that blue-grey quality and the only sounds are raindrops on the glass and the shooooshing of passing cars” – WHATEVERLAND by The Washboard Abs is the second great Z Tapes release in a week.

The Tarantula Waltz

“Reminds us that no matter how hard, life holds pockets of goodness and wonder, providing moments of fierce, bright joy which light up the dark” – Lynx EP by Swedish folkster The Tarantula Waltz

Molly Drag

“Sad and remorseful in a child-like sort of way, the existential anxiety of adults not yet formed so that his grief can occupy a pure, selfless sort of level” – ‘Open Casket Hidden Meaning’, the brand new track by Molly Drag.

Furnsss

“A return of the gloriously sloppy rock that Furnsss purvey” – Burlington lo-fi rock act announce new EP via our good pals at 80N7.

Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats

“Continues with the jaunty, boisterous vibes that set apart Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats from his solo work, sounding like mid-barroom, drunk-but-honest proclamations” – Nathaniel Rateliff gathers his band in anticipation of their debut EP.

Aidan Knight

“Starts off as a smooth and kinda groovy soft rock track which threatens several crescendos before the horned-filled celebratory climax around the halfway mark” – Aidan Knight has put out a new song in preparation for his third album, coming this autumn on Outside Music.

Small Houses

“So here’s the deal. You pledge on small amount of money in return for a digital download pre-order, and Quentin gets to make a new record and eat something other than craisens” – Small Houses needs your help on GoFundMe to make his new album.

Eskimeaux

“It’s about finally feeling okay with not feeling okay” – Impose has a substantial piece on Eskimeaux’s new album, O.K.

The Epoch

“A sweet, introspective sort of songwriting is the tendency, though hardly the rule. As an inspiring support system and model for artistic collaboration, their cult following is quickly growing” – The Epoch Collective find themselves in good company in Brooklyn Magazine’s round-up of the twenty people defining Brooklyn music in 2015.

Matheny / Molina

“Molina always seemed to know exactly which cards not to show, and with his deep body of work created music that is somehow both haunting and comforting in equal measure” – William Matheny of Southeast Engine shares his memories of Jason Molina and serves up a great cover of ‘Just Be Simple’, all over at Common Folk Music.

Best of 2015

A week late on this but the ever-reliable Gimme Tinnitus has put together a list of the best music of 2015 thus far. Well worth digging through to uncover a few unheard gems.

Nick Cave / DrFasutusAU

A few weeks late on this but it’s worth sharing: Artist DrFaustusAU has drawn a Dr Seuss-style cartoon version of Nick Cave’s ‘Red Right Hand’. You can read more about it on Faster Louder or click the image below to see the whole storybook.

Protest Music

“A reminder that soulful dissent can be both entertaining and politically efficacious. Soulful protest is the work of skillful musicians using their gifts and raising their voices to recreate the world so that everyone has an opportunity to fully participate and no one else’s voice ever again has to remain suppressed or unheard” – Jason King over on at NPR Music has put together 100 hours of protest music, using R&B and the genres which came before that helped form the genre.

Frog

“An attempt to engage modern musical ideas from a 1950s style of arrangement… [it] was a complete failure in that respect but a success in most others” – The Line of Best Fit are streaming Kind Of Blah, the new album from Frog that could well be the soundtrack of your summer.

Summer Camp

“Inspired by 90s Point Horror and Fear Street books and teen horror films, and the idea that a bad relationship can be just as terrifying as a serial killer” – Noisey are streaming Summer Camp’s Bad Love before it’s release next week on Moshi Moshi.

Shamir

And finally, Shamir walked around Brooklyn and played some songs for La Blogotheque:

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Father/Daughter Records are back with their second instalment of the Faux Real series where cool real bands cover the songs of cool fictional ones. Faux Real I saw the likes of Levek, Radiator Hospital and Body Parts covering The Muppets, The Cattanooga Cats and Disney’s Goofy, and now a fresh roster of are back to take on some of the most iconic songs in pop culture (sort of). The tracklisting is as follows:

Tracklist
1) Chumped – “Threshold” (Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World)
2) Krill – “Billy Madison Victory Song” (Billy Madison)
3) Quarterbacks – “You Painted My World” (The Adventures Of Pete & Pete)
4) Running In The Fog – “Killer Tofu” (Doug)
5) Allison Crutchfield (of Swearin’) – “Special To Me (Phoenix Audition Song)” (Phantom Of The Paradise)
6) LVL UP – “Somebody Kill Me Please” (The Wedding Singer)
7) Sharpless – “Franz Kafka” (Home Movies)
8) Rivergazer – “Fever Dog” (Almost Famous)
9) Paint Sepsi – “I Must Be In Love” (The Rutles)
10) Small Wonder – “Margerine” (The Simpsons)

While it’s hard to believe of a compilation that contains a song from Doug, this release was rejected by Record Store Day as it was “not compelling enough” for their release list. You can see the final RSD list here and, while there is some cool stuff, there is also what seems to be quite a lot of flab (seven Springsteen releases?). But, hey, what do I know? Luckily, Faux Real II lives on. And that’s a good thing, because aside from being an entertaining collection of obscure-ish made-up bands, the real artists have actually done a great job in making ten enjoyable songs that will still be listenable once the novelty wears off.

You can pre-order the compilation now from the Father/Daughter website or Bandcamp page. It will be released on 28th April on “Fake Grape” vinyl and limited to 500 copies. It’s not going to be repressed or released digitally so get in quick.

P.S. Father/Daughter head honcho Jessi Frick spoke with Stereogum about the compilation and the issues surrounding Record Store Day. It’s worth a read for those interested in how those things work.

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Tracklist:

1. Something About Us (Daft Punk cover) – Spazzkid
2. Waves and Waves and Waves (Playlounge cover) – Two White Cranes
3. Dogmas (Kississippi cover) – Cyberbully Mom Club
4. Call Me Maybe (Carly Rae Jepsen cover) – The Yellow Dress
5. Clouds (One Direction cover) – Shunkan
6. Lodi (Creedence Clearwater Revival cover) – Advance Base
7. Emma’s House (The Field Mice cover) – Lost Film
8. Pitseleh (Elliott Smith cover) – Marissa Nadler
9. Pink Rabbits (The National cover) – Matt Paxton
10. Ontario Gothic (Foxes in Fiction cover) – Julia Brown
11. Australia (Attic Abasement cover) – R.L. Kelly
12. Sister of the Moon (Fleetwood Mac cover) – Globelamp
13. I’m On Fire (Bruce Springsteen cover) – Wakes
14. When the Sun Hits (Slowdive cover) – Mao Ra Sun (Feat Dems)
15. Tomorrow is a Long Time (Bob Dylan cover) – Phosphorescent
16. Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana cover) – Noah Gundersen
17. The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton (The Mountain Goats cover) – Nathaniel Rateliff
18. Museum of Flight (Damien Jurado cover) – Winterpills

Covers Mix Volume #13 from Wake The Deaf on 8tracks Radio.

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It’s always interesting to see how an artist takes an old song and makes it their own, but this is especially pronounced with Todd Goldstein’s distinctive vocals. There are no attempts at duplication, no songs that have that I’m-having-more-fun-singing-than-you-are-listening karaoke effect, and, most importantly, no outright butchering. Instead we get eight original re-imaginings, interpretations that have obviously been worked on and perfected.

Goldstein says: “Backwards Record is a collection of songs that have made me get all feel-something-y over the years and I hope that my appreciation comes across in this humble mess of internet doodaddery. Enjoy it with my compliments.”

The full tracklist is as follows:

1. “Corporeal” (Broadcast cover)
2. “Ballad of Big Nothing” (Elliott Smith cover)
3. “Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory (Guided By Voices cover)
4. “Ana Ng” (They Might Be Giants cover)
5. “Slowdance” (Matthew Dear cover)
6. “Disgust” (Thunder & Lightning cover)
7. “Ooh La La” (The Faces cover)
8. “Foolish Love” (Rufus Wainwright cover)

The LP will be available from the 2nd Sept from Paper Garden Records.

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Be sure to check out the other volumes which can be found here. Enjoy.

Tracklisting:

1. Thirteen (Big Star cover) – The Point
2. Time After Time (Cyndi Lauper cover) – GRMLN
3. Sofia (Mannequins on 7th Street cover) – Spark Alaska
4. Sunflower (Low cover) – T E Morris
5. Hideaway (Kiesza cover) – Eliza Shaddad
6. It’s the End of the World as We Know It (R.E.M. cover) – Free Cake for Every Creature
7. Peach, Plum, Pear (Joanna Newsom cover) – FemFemFem
8. Fake Empire (The National cover) – Thad Kopec
9. No Lion (Boom Forest cover) – PHOX (Fuel/Friends Chapel Session)
10. Last To Swim (Strand of Oaks cover) – Our Griffins (Root Down in the Shadow Covers Club)
11. Unfucktheworld (Angel Olsen cover) – Nadia Reid
12. You’re Not the Only Monster (R.L. Kelly cover) – DIY Scarves
13. I’m on Fire (Bruce Springsteen cover) – Low
14. You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go (Bob Dylan cover) – My Bubba
15. Tugboat (Galaxie 500 cover) – Finnmark!
16. Frog Went a Courtin’ (Traditional) – Eef Barzelay
17. Lost on the River (Hank Williams cover) – Radiator Hospital (Birdtapes compilation)
18. Just Be Simple (Songs:Ohia cover) – Water Liars (Out of Town Films)
19. Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory (Guided By Voices cover) – Arms
20. Can’t Help Falling in Love (Elvis Presley cover) – Eels (KCRW)

Covers Mix #12 from Wake The Deaf on 8tracks Radio.

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