‘Been a Long Year’, the lead single from Alex Nicol’s forthcoming EP Been a Long Year Vol. 1, offers a picture of grief as a kind of matryoshka doll. Where a wider context of loss and decay couches the personal, and sadness moves ever-inward with increasing weight. The track’s landscape is a town decimated by both the pandemic and chronic neglect (“And all the shops are empty,” as Nicol sings, “and the diners too / The miller, baker, and seamstress / Gotta find something new to do), within which personal tragedies including the loss of a job and the death of friends and family unfold. But with a compassionate, airy tone and guest vocals from Angel Deradoorian, ‘Been a Long Year’ doesn’t try to make sense of such experiences so much as admit the full implication of their difficulty. “I wanted to express my frustration at running from my feelings for so long,” Nicol explains. “It felt like the world was crumbling at the same time as I was pretending everything was fine, but I really wasn’t, and I finally expressed it. It feels like one long exhale for me.”

Been a Long Year Vol. 1 is out on the 30th June and you can pre-save it now.

Alex Gardner – Upside Down Crown

Inspired by everything from the Anthology of American folk music, rockabilly and bluegrass to fairy tales and experimental poetry, LA‘s Alex Gardner combines classic and contemporary styles in his distinctive music. A kind of outsider folk for the twenty-first century, where Gardner teases out the through line from acts like Michael Hurley to the modern indie style. With album Highly Attainable Dreams coming later this week, single ‘Upside Down Crown’ gives an example of what to expect. A tender folk number propelled by a nineties-style indie rock energy, coupled with a suitably nostalgic video by Lauren Slusser:

Highly Attainable Dreams is out on the 12th May and you can find Alex Gardner on Bandcamp.

Brittany Ann Tranbaugh – Pennsylvania

As much a snapshot of a damaged country as it is a personal narrative, Brittany Ann Tranbaugh’s latest single follows a queer couple as they move from a liberal urban setting to their home in rural Pennsylvania. “It was wonderful to live out west,” go the opening lines, “fun to kid ourselves I guess,” the drive punctuated by second thoughts, uneasy vibes and a “radio blaring about divided times,” but also an undeniable fondness for the familiar landscape too. Tranbaugh’s country style captures this mood in all of its nuance, where fear, fury and bone-weary disappointment coalesce into one dense weight, and wry humour is perhaps the only way to lighten the load.

Pennsylvania, it was never easy to explain ya
Sometimes home’s not just an easy chair
Lately home feels like a cross to bear

Greta Ruth – Holy Omen

Writing of her debut album The Fawn back in 2021, we described the music of Minneapolis artist Greta Ruth as “hum[ming] with a quiet dream-like energy,” where “each track is a composition of poetry and tone which slowly unfurls to reveal layers of depth and meaning.” Last week, Ruth released a brand new single ‘Holy Omen’ which again follows this style. Built on gentle vocals, fingerpicked guitar and Zach Waldon’s subtle piano, it’s a song about the awe and calm that comes with real love, “a love that,” as Ruth puts it, “sweetens and strengthens you while the chaos, mystery, and dissonance of life rage on.” Stark and soft and dream-like, it’s a more than worthy addition to the Greta Ruth oeuvre.

headboy – Reservoir

Next month, London post-punk trio headboy will release their debut EP, Was It What You Thought. Comprising of Mars West (guitar, bass, vocals), Jess Collins (guitar, bass, vocals) and Oli Birbeck (drums), the band make a distinctive blend of raucous punk and lo-fi indie pop which tackles themes both personal and political. “We pretty much condensed every emotion we’ve felt in the past two years into fourteen minutes,” Collins describes. “There are moments of anger, fear, and sadness, but also moments of joy, or acceptance, at least.” Latest single ‘Reservoir’ has all the sweaty, smoky allure of a late-night dive bar dancefloor, a shadowy post-punk exploration of “infatuation and unaddressed sexual tension.” Watch the video, directed by West themselves below:

Was It What You Thought will be released on 9^th June via Blitzcat Records. Order it via the headboy Bandcamp page.

Julez and the Rollerz – Wildest Fantasy

Having originated as a solo project, Julez and the Rollerz really came to life when Jules Batterman moved to LA in 2020 and the Rollerz were enlisted. Soon Rachel David (bass/vocals), Shea Carothers (synth/vocals), Hannah Hughes (guitar/vocals) and Emi Borja (drums) were as important a part of the band as any, and the quintet began honing their psych-inflected punk rock sound. With EP Is This Where The Party Is? coming later this month, the outfit have unveiled latest single ‘Wildest Fantasy’ to rope listeners in. A track which confronts the honest difficulties of negotiating the music industry, fighting to maintain enthusiasm in a space so often appearing to drain dreams from artists. But armed with equal parts playful mischief and heart-on-sleeve passion, Julez and the Rollerz power on through regardless.

Nora Kelly Band – Lay Down Girl

Having made a name as part of grunge outfit DISHPIT, Montreal‘s Nora Kelly has until know been known for her unapologetic attitude and energy. And though a pandemic-induced rebirth pushed new project Nora Kelly Band in an alt-country direction, this defiant tone remains. Album Rodeo Clown is out this summer Mint Records, and lead single ‘Lay Down Girl’ goes some way to explaining the LP’s titular image. A figure made to smile no matter the mood. “The lyrics to this song were direct advice that I was giving to myself,” Kelly explains. “To stop staying put, acting sweet and putting everyone else first. Other people’s approval had been my priority for so long that overtime my connection to what I liked and what I wanted had become weak.” Watch the video directed by Gabie Che below:

Rodeo Clown is out on the 25th August via Mint Records. Find Nora Kelly Band on Bandcamp.

The Phone Booth – Wasted

‘Happier at Home’, the previous single from Santa Barbara outfit The Phone Booth, was a slow-burning ode to living against expectations, moving through a sludgy haze of boredom and anxiety. Something of the track must have served its therapeutic purpose, because new single ‘Wasted’ is altogether more upbeat, blending sunny indie rock with slacker sensibilities to signal something of a return to past album Roman, albeit with a new sheen of polish. The song is the lead single from a forthcoming self-titled album, and gives the impression that The Phone Booth are ready to reintroduce themselves in their most confident form yet.

Sarah Coolidge – Ice Pack

Following several singles and EPs over the last few years, Bay Area musician Sarah Coolidge is set to release her debut album, Call Me When You Get There, a collection of ten songs recorded in John Vanderslice’s Tiny Telephone Studios in Oakland. Coolidge has a knack for writing deceptively simple songs that are effortlessly catchy and full of tongue-in-cheek humour, and lead single ‘Ice Pack’ is the perfect introduction. Upbeat indie pop soaked in shoegaze shimmer, it’s a song about a litany of eye injuries suffered from 3^rd grade to present, from burnt eyebrows to invasive pepper flakes. Tennessee Mowrey joins on bass and Chris Olson on drums, and together the trio make something genuinely infectious, certainly the most buoyant examination of bodily harm you’ve heard this year.

Virgin of the Birds – Moon Chariot

Following a series of EPs, Seattle‘s Virgin of the Birds caught the attention of Edinburgh label Song, By Toad, with albums Winter Seeds and Secret Kids seeing them join a roster including the likes of Meursault and Adam Stafford. The company felt fitting for a project straddling lo-fi folk and left-field art rock, where literate lyrics are met with experimental sounds, and inventiveness need not come at the expensive of emotion. The Scottish link continues with new EP Viper Summer, with members of Edinburgh folk outfit Storm the Palace joining to add a new dimension to the project, as captured by lead single ‘Moon Chariot’. A track bursting with bright energy and mythical strangeness, where any sense of opacity from the latter is rendered redundant by the conviction of the former. A song of serpents and winged horses in which you can only totally believe.

I rejoiced at seeing the giantess
And the world and its cruelties
And the serpent that sings:
“Now, for the moon, Noreen!”
“Now, for the moon, Noreen!”

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With album Closer For Comforting coming next month, Slim Wrist have returned with brand new single, ‘Details’. The song represents another example of the pair’s uncanny ability to merge lush, unbroken textures with more restless beats, weaving a mood which resists the pure bliss of dream pop in favour of something more ambiguous. A rawness cutting through the haze, adding tension and weight.

“The starting point for the song was that insistent rolling kick,” the band explain. “Anchoring down the more ethereal vocal sample which pulses throughout, almost like it’s trying to contain it.” This sense of conflict sits at the heart of the track, the various elements competing with one another and bringing wider themes into focus. A tension between macro- and micro-level perspectives. Where details are an alluring subject, but also something to lose yourself within.

Artwork by Laura Meek

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I Will Kill Again is final confirmation (if any were needed) that Meursault are back. Things have gotten increasingly polished and less ramshackle since 2008’s Pissing On Bonfires / Kissing With Tongues, but this is undoubtedly the same band we fell in love with almost ten years ago. This is an album full of ghosts, both literal and metaphoric, from the disembodied voices that sometimes interrupt the broadcast, to Pennycook’s characters themselves, all coalescing to create a grand sense of melancholy.

‘Ellis Be Damned’ is a wonderfully simple example of what Meursault are all about, Pennycook’s vocals front and centre, delivering lyrics that are at once sincere and sardonic. When Pennycook sings, “Nobody knows how this ends / but it ends badly”, it could be read in an entirely existential way, especially when considering the ghost on the cover art, something akin to that creeping, self-effacing dread of our own demise that DeLillo explores in White Noise.

‘The Mill’ may be familiar to some, as it first appeared (in a different form) on Farewell, Bastard Mountain by, uh, Bastard Mountain, a supergroup that contained members of Meursault as well as those of Sparrow & the Workshop, Broken Records and Rob St. John. ‘Ode to Gremlin’, another track that feels like the distilled essence of Meursault, is shot through with a sense of melancholy, but also with a self-referential sense of deprecation, as Pennycook laments the over-use of sea metaphors in art by presenting one of his own (“The last thing the world needs now / is another song about the fucking sea”). It’s not hard to extend this feeling to how much of the liberal western world is feeling right now, the futility of half-hearted good intentions, the doomed sense of helplessness and hypocrisy.

‘Klopfgeist’ builds from strange garbled vocal samples, a metronome that sets the song on its tracks before and elegant piano line and soaring vocals. The song’s title is not some new high-pressing tactic out of Merseyside but the German word for poltergeist, another nod to the spirits that haunt the album. But in true Meursault fashion, things aren’t entirely sincere and po-faced, as the clever opening lines attest.

“Like Sinatra, Sinatra, Sinatra
to the underworld you are tied”

‘Oh Sarah’ is a very short runaway piano song, before the minimal and emotional indie rock of ‘Belle Amie’, the band playing in a collective whisper, the gentle growl of electric guitar snaking around negative space and Pennycook’s vocals which lament the absence of a loved one (“and it’s true that I still miss you / and it’s true that I’m still angry”). The track bursts into life in the last minute, a noisy crescendo of overspilled emotions, before the crackling ‘Gone, etc…’, a meditation on the hauntings of loved ones after they die (“Gone, you are gone / but that is not all you are”).

The title track is as intense as the title suggests, wired with a whining drone, a smattering of drums and the cried repeated refrain of “I will kill again”. It’s here that Pennycook really focuses on framing himself (as the songwriter) as the antagonist, what he describes to Drowned in Sound as, “ my attempt to redress the balance by confessing all of the terrible things that I’m likely to do but haven’t got around to yet. We’re all capable of terrible things, the trick is to avoid repetition.”

The final track, ‘A Walk in the Park’ is comparably calm and reflected, based on sombre piano and that cold-wind rawness of a lonely cello and vocals that are imbued with a very real sense of loss. Apparently inspired by a day spent hunting for a bench dedicated to Jim Henson in Central Park, it sees the narrator sitting on a bench, looking out at the view and reflecting on things done and gone. But despite this sense of sadness, it is perhaps the most hopeful song on the record, which admittedly isn’t saying much, but its final lines see a sense of advancement, a suggestion that the ghosts might finally be confined to the past, where they belong.

“And I am reminded
that this is a good life
and to enjoy it”

I Will Kill Again is more than just one if 2017’s standout albums, it’s a reminder of just how much we have missed Meursault, and what a treat it is to see them rise from the grave. It’s a worthy addition to their catalogue and shows that not even ten years in the music industry has taken away the plaintive and earnest emotion that has always been at the root of their work.

I Will Kill Again is out now on Song, By Toad Records and you can buy it via Bandcamp.

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So lo and behold Meursault is/are back with a brand new EP, Simple is Good, something we’re very happy about. The EP sounds like an act finding its feet once more, taking in many of the iterations of Meursault from their back catalogue to include downbeat lo-fi numbers, manic indie rock songs and straight up acoustic ballads. The opening title track is based on a repetitively emotive piano line and thudding percussion, eventually joined by swirling strings and Pennycook’s distinctive vocal delivery.

“Once there was nothing
and then let there be light
and then there was still nothing
but now we could see it”

In comparison, ‘By Gaslight’ is a joyous mess. Gone is the composed piano, the careful sense of melancholy. Here we get the devotional drone of church organ and slapped Dessner-esque percussion, all sewn together by the wheeze of harmonica. By the end the vocals ring from the rafters in the jubilant cry of “they are playing our song”.

‘A Killer Chorus’ then strips things right back, Pennycook’s vocals seemingly delivered directly into the listener’s ear, before ‘The Fix Is In’ blows away the cobwebs with a crunchy guitar song that has an almost bluesy swagger. ‘A Kind Of Cure’ slows things right down once more, the slow tap of percussion and ghostly floating synths allowing Pennycook to take centre stage with his greatly affecting vocals, before the gentle acoustic closer, ‘Albeit Barely’. The song is a 90 second shot of what Meursault are all about, beauty and misanthropy interlocked in a configuration that somehow makes things seem like they might just turn out okay after all.

“My God, my God
what an ugly child
what a time to be a live
albeit barely”

You can get Simple is Good from the Song, By Toad Records Bandcamp page. In a further dose of good news, Pennycook has announced a brand new full-length to be released at the end of February. You can pre-order that on Bandcamp too and hear the first single below:

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Over the course of three years, the sounds of acoustic guitar, pump organ, piano, banjo and voice were caught on tape, rearranged, processed and, coupled with other sounds and recordings, left waiting for months on end. All the while life changed, relationships ended, new life began and older lives ended. More sounds were recorded, arranged, and left to wait.

Eventually these recordings eveloved into finished tracks, and the band enlisted the expert help of Kristopher Strom, Nils Frahm and Heather Woods Broderick. Said tracks have now been packaged into a full-length LP entitled Teeth Out. You can hear the first track ‘Worry, Glory’, which sees Broderick taking on vocal duties, in the player below:

The Silence Set are due to release Teeth Out on the 6th of November. You can pre-order it now via Mini50 Records.

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Edinburgh’s Now Wakes The Sea seem to exist at numerous points on this spectrum, with nods to pop music, lo-fi indie rock and downright weird psychedelica and drone. Originally the solo project of Alan McCormack, Bildungsroman sees NWTS become a band, a band which utilizes a whole manner of weird and wonderful sounds to create their schizoid songs. Imagine locking The Antlers, You Won’t, The Microphones, Owen Ashworth and goodness knows who else in a haunted junk shop and demanding they record an album with makeshift instruments crafted from whatever they could find. The result is every bit as good as it sounds.

A bildungsroman is a coming-of-age story, and this album sees NWTS evolve not just in terms of numbers but in sound and maturity. Listening to their previous releases, you get a sense of the arc that their music is taking, and appreciate their efforts to explore new territory. The promo information from label Mini50 Records quotes John F. Kennedy: “If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.”

Mini50 Records are one of the very best labels in their willingness to release albums that push boundaries and challenge expectations. We have covered this before with Old Earth, discussing how his music stands up as pieces of art, refusing to bow down to conventions and compromise ideals for accessibility. With NWTS this is thrown into sharp relief as they prove in parts of the album that they are more than capable of doing the popular bouncy indie rock thing. They could easily have put together a solid, entertaining collection of songs which would have been well received. No listeners would have questioned their choices. No-one would be thinking ‘why didn’t they try to explore some weird stuff here? Why did they settle for this great little lo-fi pop album?’

The conclusion is that their forays into the bizarre and challenging were not a choice but a need. This is not a band peddaling imitation in an attmept to get ahead in the Big Blogosphere Popularity Contest, nor is it an act that was not thinking of the listener when writing and recording. This is an attempt to communicate a specific interpretation of what it means to be human, and it is up to us listeners if we want to put in the effort to understand and appreciate it.

This album opens up an interesting debate on the value of effort (on the part of the consumer) in relation to art, and how this should be balanced with accessiblity. How effort and reward should be related, and how instant gratification could ultimately limit the effectiveness (intensity?) of said gratification. There are probably far more knowledgable people than myself discussing this very topic, so I won’t go any deeper than that, but I feel it should be known that art which requires some effort on the part of the reader/viewer/listener is always taking a chance, as a big investment requires a big payoff. While this album does require an investment (even the title demands further reading), rest assured that it is an investment worth your while.

You can buy Bildungsroman from Bandcamp or via Mini50 Records.

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Back in October 2012, Pennycook, Sullivan and St. John each provided three songs (both old and new), one to be sung by themselves, and one each for the other two to sing. They then wrote and recorded the music, and Farewell, Bastard Mountain was born. The collaborative and semi-improvised nature of the writing/recording process (along with the fact the majority of the record was recorded in a live setting, after only hours of rehearsal), lend a natural air to things. It shows what can be achieved when a group of talented artists and friends have even just a short period to create something.

As you might expect, fans of any of the bands mentioned are going to love this. It is packed full of the textured folk slash indie rock that these bands have made their own over the past several years. For me, Pennycook’s trademark vocals take centre stage, but perhaps that is because Meursault are my favourite band of the lot.

The vinyl has been pressed without breaks between tracks, so the entire album plays as one cohesive piece of music.

Farewell, Bastard Mountain is due for release on the 12th of May. You can pre-order it now via Song, By Toad Records. I highly suggest you do so.

There are also two album release shows, one at London’s Shhh! Festival on May the 24th, and another north of the border in Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh on May the 29th.

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The product of the tour was a tour album, entitled Milwaukee To Edinburgh, 2013, comprised of recordings made at various venues that Umhoefer visited whilst in Scotland. The tracks range from recordings from shows (e.g. ‘Less Words’ at Henry’s Cellar Bar) and live sessions for Song, By Toad, to rather more intimate performances in less conventional environments. A personal favourite is ‘Unanswered Echo Verse’ from Small Hours, a field recording at Euan and Ali’s (presumably the home of mini50’s Euan McMeeken), with its ambient baby noise and resulting shushing from its parents.

There is also a video of the tour, filmed by Lindsay Slepekis, basically a short film, a collage of performances in a multitude of locations. The film ends with an incredibly intimate shot of Umhoefer’s performance of ‘Unanswered Echo Verse’ which I mentioned above, in which he is approached by the baby from the front and a cat from behind.  The whole thing is great and serves as a collage that perfectly illustrates the trip. It also shows that Old Earth’s songs hold up well in the live setting, and sort of proves what I already knew in that I could sit and listen to him play guitar for hours.

You can buy Milwaukee To Edinburgh, 2013 via Old Earth’s Bandcamp page.

P.S. Old Earth are playing a show with White Hinterland and S. Carey on April the 24th, so if you’re in Milwaukee get yourself along!

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Each track is to be accompanied by a video created by photographer and fashion designer Ellen Nevrokopska. The videos will be revealed after release, but one is already available to view, that for the track above. The video is a beautiful monochrome shot of a coastline, which perfectly partners the recordings of lapping waves that open the track. Look closely to almost imperceptible movements in the clouds and the tiny specks of gulls flapping around in the distance.

Lighthouse is released on the 26th of March on This Ain’t Music.

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That’s all very exciting for American fans or those braving the trip to Texas, but why should the rest of us take notice? The answer lies in the ingenious method of fundraising that the band used along with the good folks over at Song, by Toad Records. The basic premise was that anyone who pledged support to the Kickstarter campaign was asked to vote for up to five songs that they would like to hear the band play on a specially produced album. And they weren’t limited to Meursault songs, suggestions of covers were welcomed.

The result is a pseudo-covers album (pseudo as there are a couple of re-imagined Meursault tracks thrown in too, such as the re-worked version of ‘Dearly Distracted’ in the player below), which has been wonderfully captured and produced. It must also be said that Meursault fans have great taste, with some of my all-time favourite songs making it onto the album (see ‘No Children’ by Mountain Goats and Wolf Parade’s ‘I’ll Believe In Anything’ in particular).

Each track has its merits, and I really don’t think there’s a dud amongst the fourteen strong collection. A personal favourite is the cover of Chad VanGaalen’s ‘Rabid Bits of Time’, which is perfectly suited to Neil Pennycook’s emotive vocals.

You can get the album now via Song, by Toad Records.

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