We last covered the work of AJ Lambert as part of Bloodslide, an experimental group featuring members of Preoccupations and Protomartyr. But she also records under her own name and has assembled another stellar band for her new album, Dirt Soda. Together with musicians who have played with Joan As Policewoman, Yves Tumor, Dave Harrington and Julia Holter, Lambert uses the record to further her creative, genre-bending style, creating self-described ‘distorted anthems’ which blur the line between reality and dreams.

Lead single ‘Staff of the Flag’ is a great example, based around the notorious stretch of road where James Dean and many others have met their end. “I found it interesting that so many people know that one person who died there, but so many others have met the same fate and go unrecognized except by the people who loved them,” Lambert explains. “The song is about an imaginary woman who, after selling flowers to tourists on their way to the Dean site all day, takes the leftovers to the nearby site where her own loved one died.”

‘Staff of the Flag’ is out now and available via the AJ Lambert on Bandcamp. Dirt Soda is out in July.

CLAMM – Bit Much

Melbourne punks CLAMM say their music is an attempt to “explore the confusion of what it is to be a young person trying to live an honourable life in this fucked up world,” something they achieve by forgoing all restraint and throwing themselves into unrelenting cathartic noise. The band have recently announced their sophomore LP Care on Meat Machine and Chapter Music, a record which promises to be “bigger, louder and darker” than their 2020 debut Beseech Me. This is in part thanks to the fact the band are now a trio, bassist Maisie Everett joining Jack Summers (guitar and vocals) and Miles Harding (drums) to expand CLAMM into what the band say is “its ultimate form.” In anticipation of the new record, they have released lead single ‘Bit Much’, a song about the barrage of bad news that is modern life which ricochets around at typically breakneck speed.

Care will be released on 19th August on Meat Machine (UK, Europe & Asia) and Chapter Music (everywhere else). You can preorder it now from the CLAMM Bandcamp page.

Friendship – Ugly Little Victory

Fresh from signing with Merge Records, Philadelphia‘s Friendship have unveiled a brand new single, ‘Ugly Little Victory’. Those familiar with the band’s live set might recognise the tune from on the road, but even those who don’t will find an uncanny sense of familiarity. Something in the way the band collects details and sensations within their work, bringing to life quietly devastating circumstances which feel halfway our own. Songs about nothing and everything all at once.

Salmon head in the sink
wax paper turning pink
music playing low
and you on your phone
loading up a recipe

‘Ugly Little Victory’ is out now via Merge Records and available from the Friendship Bandcamp page.

Katie Bejsiuk – Onion Stalk

After years heading up free cake for every creature and later recording as Katie Bennett, Katie Bejsiuk has adopted her father’s original surname for brand new album The Woman on the Moon, out next month on Double Double Whammy. With its hushed acoustic style, lead single ‘Onion Stalk’ blends childlike wonder with reflective melancholy, though as it develops an electric edge emerges, braiding these twin threads into something determined and defiant.

we wrote the field guide
to the left-behind
we wore beer tab rings
and wild violet crowns
made a bed of the moss on the ground

I believe

The Woman on the Moon is out via Double Double Whammy on the 24th June and you can pre-order it now from the Katie Bejsiuk Bandcamp page. As a related aside (Weekly Reading, if you will), Lithub recently published Bennett’s fantastic essay on Joan Vollmer Burroughs which is very much worth your time.

Langkamer – Soul Bucket

Bristol‘s Langkamer have made a name with a sound that’s hard to nail down. A bit of folk, a bit of indie rock, a ton of playful personality. Following on from the brightly boisterous ‘Teeth’, they have returned with a brand new single ‘Soul Bucket’ on Breakfast Records. Taking a slightly more subdued, reflective air, the track faces up to the realities of growing older by leaning into the contemplative folk end of their sensibilities, though their distinctively mischievous side isn’t far below the surface. “‘Soul Bucket’ is an ode to ageing,” the band explain. “To realising that the time is rolling away from you and you can’t catch up no matter how fast you run.” Check out the video by JJ Jarman below:

‘Soul Bucket’ is out now via Breakfast Records and available from the Langkamer Bandcamp page.

Mote – Defying Ephemera

Having met at Binghamton University and won the hearts of the local scene, New York‘s Mote have just released their debut record, Defying Ephemera. Though not strictly a concept record, there’s a narrative arc from love to lonely longing across the twelve tracks, the nasty dose of heartbreak smack bang in the middle bringing a conflicted, anguished mood. The lead single and title track opens the record, existing before the worst has come to pass, but the growing chaos which envelops the spoken vocals hints at the turmoil to come.

Sunflower Thieves – Lichtenberg Figures

The project of Leeds-based childhood friends Amy Illingworth and Lily Sturt-Bolshaw, Sunflower Thieves make emotive music that draws on the ethereal tones of dream pop and the lyrical honesty of folk. Late last month they released their latest EP Someone To Be There For, a collection of five songs that captures nurturing warmth and bracing honesty which mark them as songwriters to watch. Perhaps the standout is ‘Lichtenberg Figures’, a song which celebrates the hard-won beauty of overcoming trauma through the metaphor of the tree-like pattern of lesions sometimes left on the skin when a person is hit by lightning.

You were struck by lightning walking in the rain to your car
and when you woke the lightning left a beautiful scar.

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Released to coincide with his birthday, and organised by Dan Wriggins (of Friendship) in collaboration with Dear Life Records, You Were Alone: An Owen Ashworth Almanac is a covers compilation featuring versions of Owen’s songs from family, friends, labelmates and fans. A celebration which recognises a birthday but also so much more than that. A body of work and the burgeoning legacy it has and continues to establish, not to mention the blossoming community fostered through Owen’s label Orindal Records.

And community feels like the right word for the compilation. Both in terms of the gathered artists and the characters they bring to life. Because hearing the songs in different voices really brings home the diversity of personalities present across Owen’s work. Pedro the Lion adds a weariness to ‘My Sister’s Birthday’ with his distinctively gruff fondness. Claire Cronin is the perfect person to fully excavate the spookiness of ‘Pamela’. MJ Lenderman and Karly Hartzman raise a glass to poor old Christmas Steve. Sinai Vessel captures ‘Kitty Winn’ in all its sad affection.

Some, like Lisa/Liza‘s ‘Rabbits’ or Karima Walker‘s ‘Same Dream’, take the original versions back to the traditional folk roots, while the likes of Ylayali, Moon Racer and Bedbug lean into the electronic, harking back to earlier CFTPA days. What’s impressive is how the distinctive “Ashworthian” voice remains across the spectrum. Even the tracks with no literal voice, be it Robert Stillman‘s take on ‘Christmas in Nightmare City’ or Gordon Ashworth‘s extended guitar version of ‘Nephew in the Wild’, lose none of their ability to evoke the tales we’ve grown to hold so dear. Because while Dan might have intended to organise a birthday party, it turned out more like a reunion. A gathering of Owen’s characters, our friends. Still here, still living, still with so many stories to tell.

Cover painting by Martha Miller

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