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The lockdown-era return of wildlife to the towns looked foreboding, with images of our streets deserted but for the odd roaming animals - but weren't cities built for everyone? Sean O' Hagan and his daughter Livvy have teamed up to sing of this ecstatic, divisive and unexpected homecoming, with squelching, modern r'n'b beats to boost the much needed energies in our stagnated communities today. Mixed by modern art-pop wunderkind Fryars, "The Wild Are Welcome" introduces a futuristic side of O'Hagan's always inventive songcraft. Sean writes:

Long MIA, Silver Jew is now available on VOD and for purchase on Vimeo, Google Play, YouTube, iTunes and Amazon Prime Video. A documentary by Michael Tully and Matthew Robison Silver Jew focuses on the Silver Jews' tour dates played in Israel, and the the return to public life and Judiasm by David Berman at the time of Silver Jews' first world tour in 2005. 
 

Rent, purchase and watch Silver Jew on your platform of choice now!

The firmament, cold and relentless, stretched over his head, a black rainbow riven with ice-white pinpricks. He had come to this far system in the name of familiar duty - and here, in the thin atmosphere of a war-torn moon orbiting an unremarkable ringed planet whose name, a combination of numbers and letters appended to a symbol representing a local God's name, meant nothing to him beyond its usefulness in a filing system to help make clear where exactly he had rambled, he had once... (read more)

Appendix Out, over three albums and a handful of singles (including their debut 7" on Palace Records) was an ambitious, steady-evolving concern in the mid-to-late 90s, eventually flowing gentle into Alasdair Roberts' equally ambitious solo career. Nearly 20 years since shedding his early alias, while sheltering in place in London, Alasdair returned to that short catalog of songs documenting his early years of songwriting and recording.

Appendix Out played ornate Scottish folk music resonated through a doleful indie-rock spirit, as young Alasdair Roberts flashed... (read more)

Cory Hanson and Ty Segall have decided to release the much anticipated single "She's a Beam" today, along with "Milk Bird Flyer". Both songs were recorded 5 years ago, and were recently rediscovered. They will be donating 100% of the first week's sales of both songs to Black Lives Matter LA.

 

Support "She's a Beam" and "Milkbird Flyer" exclusively on Bandcamp, peace and love to all.

The people of the world are hurting so, sometimes it seems like there isn't enough healing music to go around. Music makers won't stop trying though! Bonnie 'Prince' Billy is among the many artists thinking and acting both locally and globally right now.

The situation throughout the Amazon Basin is dire as indigenous peoples suffer from illness, lack of food, medical supplies and income due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Medical infrastructure is more or less collapsed in many regions and jungle communities are left... (read more)

From the archive to the people in a time of need: the clear, clean (and, yes, sometimes verbed-up and distorto) signals of a sound in its birth throes! Behold: Sic Alps' Disc Rats Vol 1. Written, performed and recorded to 4 track cassette in 2006-2007, Disc Rats presents the demos for eleven fan faves from the subsequent genre-busting releases that scored Sic Alps their  infamy: U.S. EZ, "Description of  The Harbor", "Strawberry Guillotine",  "L. Mansion" and A Long Way Around To A Shortcut. 

Before the production revolutions of the band versions have set in, baby Mike Donovan's... (read more)

Come June 12th, it's a Box of Chocolates for everyone! Ya see, that's the release date of Fearful Symmetry, the lone Box Of Chocolates album that we're grateful to gift to the world's sweet teeth (and everyone with a sense of taste!). Back in the day, Box of Chocolates baked the cake and ate it too, as only made possible within the freewheeling dawn of the 1990s. With Fearful Symmetry's reintroduction imminent, BoC come into clear focus with "The Writhe", a frantic new-wave funker that's a... (read more)

Well, beat the drum and hold the phone, a new No Age jammer came out today! Procured from their bottomless bag of punk rock licks, "Head Sport Full Face" is excitement personified - you know, like a melodic knife in the eye, followed by a joyous trip to the emergency room to receive ecstatic stickers. Here, Dean and Randy carve a raw sketch into their hardened table-top of dense sound, showing their roots continue to evolve into whatever they can imagine - as long as it rocks... (read more)

Notoriously out of step with the salad days of DC's hardcore movement of the early 80s, Maryland's No Trend burst on the scene with a uniquely nihilistic sound that was unmistakably their own.
 

"For The Fun Of It All," from No Trend's 1983 masterpiece, Too Many Humans, has all their defining elements - lyrics both sarcastic and desperate, nauseous waves of guitar distortion, and a cool, rolling rhythm section. Provocative... (read more)