Guitarist Blake Sennett announced the split in an interview saying that despite reports they were on hiatus, they would definitely not reunite. Jenny Lewis has been working on her Jenny and Jonny project whilst Sennett was recording with The Elected, with the later saying:
“I just felt like there was a lot of deception, disloyalty, greed and things I don’t really want to submit myself to. I had related that frustration to music.”
A compilation of unreleased tracks might make its way into the world in the not-too-distant future.
Nick Oliveri has been arrested following a standoff with Police.
The former Queens of the Stone Age bassist, who is currently a part of the Kyuss Lives tour, barricaded himself in his Los Angeles home and stayed inside for five hours. Reports say that Oliveri was arguing with his partner and refused to meet the Police when they called for him. He finally surrended and was charged on domestic violence charges before posting bail of $100,000.
Oliveri had been booted out of QOTSA after Josh Homme discovered he had been physically abusive to his then-partner.
Even though they are barely over a year old, Norway’s Wolves Like Us show maturity far beyond their years in their debut release Late Love; a feat perhaps owing to the members’ previous experience in notable Norwegian acts such as Amulet and JR Ewing. There is undoubtedly high quality of song writing throughout and the album is very concise, playing out at just the right tempo throughout and never outstaying its welcome.
Purpose driven drums and utterly relentless riffs give the perfect backdrop to vocalist Lars Kristensen’s empowered baritone, from album opener (and one of the biggest highlights) ‘Burns Like A Paper Rose’ all the way through to haunting closing track ‘To Whore With Foreign Gods’. This is certainly an album that justifies the opportunities that this relatively new band have been handed, for example, touring with bands such as Klavertak and Gallows.
It isn’t just typical hardcore conventions on show here though either; this is a band that know their instruments well and the aforementioned brutality is often accompanied by delicately intricate lead lines and atmospheric arpeggios, most notably on ‘Secret Handshakes’ and ‘Deathless’.
There isn’t a dull moment to be had, especially with some great variation displayed from full on pit inducing bridges to some excellent melodic sections (‘Sin after Sin’ being one of the best examples of this) and an extremely solid rhythm section throughout. It’s an overused cliché, perhaps, but this album truly is all killer, no filler.
Late Love has been released on Prosthetic Records who have also put out the similarly remarkable Darker Handcraft by Trap Them this year. You can be sure that this won’t be the last you hear of Wolves Like Us with two European tours upcoming in 2011 (one of these with US legends Swing Kids, no less) and a main stage appearance at Norway’s OYA festival. Wolves Like Us are without doubt a band to keep an eye (and ear) out for in future.
While Denmark might not be known as a goldmine for producing great punk bands, if you’ve been reading the music press in recent months the chances are you may have come across Iceage. Rumblings of this Copenhagen band’s debut record reached the UK at the beginning of the year, as its initial release was picked up by a number of tastemaking blogs and championed in Noel Gardener’s superb punk column over at The Quietus. In his column, Gardener describes the record as ‘basically, perfect’ and ‘one of the best punk rock records released in recent years’, and I would be hard pushed to disagree.
Given that the history of punk has been mined so many times, it’s difficult to make a record that sounds like nothing else around it. Look around at contemporary punk music and you’ll find variations of Black Flag, variations of Fugazi and variations of Wire, but every once in a while something will be released that sounds completely pure. Not that the album doesn’t draw heavily from post punk influences, but everything is so right about this recording, from the songs to the production, that it manages to distinguish itself among any number of copyist acts. It’ll be interesting to see whether this album is a one-off fluke, but New Brigade captures the essence of what makes punk so damn exciting in the first place.
It’s scrappy, energetic production makes it easy to imagine in a live setting, barely held together on record you can only imagine things intensifying at shows. The guitars clatter against each other, almost lost in the muddle of noise, before being dragged out by some hook that comes out of nowhere. While this doesn’t sound like a record made for anyone other than the band themselves, there are standout tracks (‘White Rune’, ‘New Brigade’, ‘Broken Bone’) with choruses that will bounce around your head for days. Albeit sung in singer Elias Rønnenfelt’s signature sluggish drawl. While the band certainly aren’t scared to thrash out a minute long punk jam, their perhaps at their best when these bursts of near-melody jump out completely unexpectedly.
The early excitement Iceage picked up has quickly multiplied in recent months. With a US release for New Brigade on Dais, at the time of writing the band is currently embarking on a full tour of the states. Whether or not they can maintain the often fleeting attention of the modern indie press remains to be seen, but for now we’re just glad to see this record being noticed. A proper punk record from an exciting new talent.
If you are big fan of stoner rock then you really need to watch this documentary Such Hawks Such Hounds. The film made by John Srebalus covers the underground rock scene from 1970-2007 and features interviews discussing stoner, drone, metal and the sludge scene from various bands including Mudhoney, Dead Meadow, Sleep, Kyuss and many more.
This is available on DVD, so order one as this is a definite keeper.
The Avalanches watershed debut album, ‘Since I Left You‘, is about to receive the deluxe 10-Year Anniversary treatment it deserves.
The Since I Left You 10-Year Anniversary Re-Issue will feature the original classic album accompanied by a bonus disc of material including remixes from the original album campaign, new reworks from the likes of El Guincho, MF Doom, Canyons, Black Dice, Jackson and his Computer Band, some exquisite Avalanches remixes of other artists, plus unreleased early b-sides, demo tracks and other such rarities.
Frank Carter announced that he was leaving Gallows on Saturday during the band’s explosive Sonisphere 2011 Festival set. After 6 years of fronting the UK’s most exciting punk band, Frank is about to move onto pastures new with his new project Pure Love.
After speaking with him in the band’s dressing room on Saturday, Frank admitted that Pure Love was much different to Gallows in musical terms. Fans will realise pretty quickly that shouting and screaming will be replaced by crooning and singing. He told us that Nick Cave and QOTSA, had more in common with the new project with Jim Carroll (whose previous projects have included Suicide File, Clouds, Hope Conspiracy) and that they have been writing tunes over the phone and internet and hooking up whenever in NYC. The pair will be recording their debut album in September and then will hit the road later this year so look out for announcements.
As for Gallows, they will continue to play without Frank, and they are about to announce the identity of their new vocalist, who is said to be Canadian, in the coming weeks. Look out for the last remaining shows with Frank at the helm at the dates below and embrace the changes.
JULY 2011
10th SWANSEA SIN CITY
11th GLOUCESTER GUILDHALL
17th GUILDFORD GUILFEST ROCK CAVE
22nd COCKERMOUTH FESTIVAL
23rd ULU LONDON
Frank has this to say on leaving the band: “It is with a heavy heart that I have to announce my departure from Gallows. It seems that Gallows have hit a crossroads in our writing process and unfortunately myself and the rest of the boys have different ideas regarding the sound of Gallows going forward. Gallows have decided they are going to continue on without me and I wish the boys the best of luck for the future. Gallows will be fulfilling all of our current touring plans until August 1st so please come down to a show and help me make each show a total celebration!”
Watch the beginning and the end of Gallows’ amazing live set from the Sonisphere Festival from the stage here filmed by (we think) Frank’s Mum. We have had the pleasure of being very close to this band for 6 years and wish them all the very best with the 2 new projects. We will bring you fresh news when we get it.
With so many amazing music video being made right now, our fingers are itching to share them and this week’s comes from photographer Lionel Dufau who brough you this feature a couple of years ago. Remember it?
Anyway, Lionel dropped us a line this week with the news that he has spent some time working on a music video for The Loose Salute. It was shot for free in his bedroom and around Newquay with a ridiculously low budget for props. Check out the ‘Happy I Don’t Count‘ and get a summer injection from Graveface Records.
The Loose Salute play Rough Trade East in East London on September 12th.
Wugazi have unleashed another cut from their upcoming 13 Chambers album, dropping this Wednesday [July 13th] and featuring O.D.B. shimmy-shimmying his way over the tune.
If you’ve not already checked it out, have a read of our exclusive interview with Cecil and Andy, the men behind the masterpiece here.
Fugazi and the Wu Tang Clan are two iconic groups, both defining the sound of a scene and making everyone sit up and take notice of their music and their message. So what happens when you mix the two together? Well, thanks to Doomtree‘s Cecil Otter and fellow Minneapolis musician Swiss Andy, of The Swiss Army and The Millionth Word fame, we now know.
Sleep Rules Everything Around Me mysteriously appeared on Soundcloud and within half a day, the track had garnered 20,000 listens, with over 100,000 in a week. It has been one of the most talked about topics in music of late and we caught up with the two brainchildren behind the project to discuss the process of making the music, how long it took and even preferred fighting styles.
Ladies and Gentlemen, enter the Chamber of the Wugazi!
The big question first – how did you come up with the idea of putting Fugazi and Wu Tang together? Are you both big fans of both acts so know their catalogue extensively?
Cecil: Andy had been kicking around the idea for a few years before he brought it up to me. We had both been huge fans of each group since we were young, so it was easy to fall in love with the idea of WUGAZI.
Andy: Yeah, that is pretty much all that was in my headphones during the 90s.
Cecil: A one point in his life, Andy sold his guitar amp just so he could go see a Fugazi show. I sold my tickets to that same Fugazi show and bought an ice cream cone and shared it with my friend. I later broke into that show, caused a scene and got screamed at by Guy from Fugazi. He kept telling everyone that he saw me eating ice cream outside with my friend…over and over…I didn’t enjoy that at all, but the ice cream was good.
Andy: Asshole.
Did you decide on the tracks you wanted to use first or did you just play it by ear and see which Wu track fit with which Fugazi?
Cecil: We would listen through every Fugazi album and take notes on where the drum breaks, bass loops and guitar loops were. After that I would put them into Protools accordingly, find a close enough tempo to fallow the song, chop everything onto a grid and start cranking away at a song structure.”
Andy: I had a few Fugazi tracks I really wanted to use, but they were just too fast or slow for us to fit under an acapella.
Cecil: We let the samples loop in the background and begin to play Wu Tang acapellas over the song until we found the perfect match. When we found that, we would place it in the session and begin to cut, paste and stretch each verse to fit the track…then we get detailed.
Andy: We would try to use more than one song in each track. Using them more as samples for producing, than just putting one thing on top of the other.
Were there any tracks that you tried to mash together that just sounded horrible?
Cecil: Oh yeah, that’s why we put a full year into this. We have a handful of half done songs that just wouldn’t marry each other or we didn’t have a clean enough acapella to work with. The hardest thing about making the album (well, one of them) was the limited Wu Tang acapellas that we had access to. There are so many Wu Tang songs that we would have loved to do, we probably would have been able to call it Wugazi: 36 Songs if we had all the acapellas!
You’ve got 13 Chambers dropping in July, is there anything you can tell us about it other than it houses the track Sleep Rules Everything Around Me?
Cecil: Well, it will have 12 more songs and they will all be different and they will all have drums and bass and guitar and vocals, never forget the vocals!
Also, Sleep… hit 20,000 plays in 12 hours, did you think it was going to be as huge as that in such a short space of time?
Cecil: Not at all. We we’re very excited about the tracks because our friends loved them so much. We had no idea that the two groups would work together so well. We made S.R.E.A.M. the first night into the project. We lost our shit when we stretched the vocals in and took the first listen. After that night, Wugazi was pretty much a reason to get together with a friend and lose ourselves in the moment. I don’t think either of us had any idea that so many others would like it as much as we do, but then again…it’s Wu Tang and Fugazi, who doesn’t like them?!
Andy: When Paddy Costello almost started crying, I knew we were doing something right. But never thought this would spread like it has.
Would you like to see the two bands work together, maybe do a one-off live show where Ian MacKaye battles Ghostface? Or have Guy Picciotto go hard against Method Man?
Andy: All those guys are such great musicians. Even after Fugazi, Guy produced that amazing Blonde Redhead record and Joe put out that album with John Frusciante. Putting Ian in a room with RZA, I wouldn’t even know where to start…
Cecil: Without a doubt. That would be one of the happiest days of my life.
If you had a sword style, which you would have to train in the mountains of Tibet to perfect, what would it be called?
Rilo Kiley are no more.
