Browsing Category Tracks

SUSS – “Ursa Major”

by on ·Bits & Pieces, Tracks

After a stellar single earlier in the year, Brooklyn’s SUSS return with another take on a cosmic rinse to their ambient country sprawl. “Ursa Major” rises over the horizon in purple and blue hues, creeping with the cool density of low-lying mountain fog and practically yawning its way through a sauntered pace. The band hits many of the same notes from their “Chisholm Trail” single, especially evoking the flip, “Aurora.” The sawing of strings meets the opalescent slide of guitar and the whole thing melts into the rocks as the daybreaks through its cracks. The band’s new LP, High Line is out from Northern Spy November 8th and if my eyes don’t deceive me there’s another nice Darryl Norsen cover wrapped around it as well. Keep yer ears out for this one.



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Comet Gain – “Mid 8Ts”

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I’m always gonna be a sucker for Comet Gain. The UK janglers have long been holding up the legacy of C86 and jangle-pop with a biting wit and a constant sense of evolution on the sounds that built a sizeable indie enclave in the UK. The band last left us with the pillow-soft sensibilities of 2014’s Paperback Ghosts. It’s clear that they’ve had a bit of hardening up since then. The songs on Fireraiser Forever! are distinctly angrier in spots, but that doesn’t mean they can’t leave a little room for a swooning stomp on nostalgia as well. While the band’s admittedly ‘60s derived outlook might not seem like its primed to poke holes in the past, the new single begs otherwise. “Mid 8Ts” takes a few jabs at the rosy glow that’s placed on the past, giving themselves a bit of the lash as well for placing that kind of soft-focus fascination on the ’60 when they went through the ‘80s. As they say, “Your heart plays tricks on you, forgets the shit on your Beatle boots.” But in the end, they come around to the notion that “My punk rock damage is done. I’m here and its where I belong.”

The new LP is out on Tapete on October 11th. Gonna want to write that down.




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Vetiver – “To Who Knows Where”

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It’s never a bad day when Andy Cabic’s on the speakers. The veteran indie-folk icon has been flying the Vetiver flag for a good many years and he’s still distilling sound into the pure feeling of fall breeze over the mountains, sun setting just over the horizon. With first taste of the band’s Up On High Cabic butters his folk in more than a bit of amber-hued country and it suits him well. The song’s an ode to taking the road unplanned and its unfettered saunter pairs well with his tale of sloughing off the yoke of too much forethought. As we all collectively ease into the latter half of he week and the last light of summer begins to fade, let Vetiver drift along beside you, wherever the road might lead.



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Red River Dialect – “My Friend”

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Theres a shadow of Fairport on the new LP from Red River Dialect — knotted folk that seeps into harder forms and latches onto experimental moorings. It’s the most prominent shadow over Abundance Welcoming Ghosts, but on “My Friend” the specter of John Martyn seems to loom larger for just a moment. David Morris channels the furrowed lines and nimble grooves of the veteran UK folk icon, specifically finding his footing in the mode of Martyn’s seminal Solid Air. Like that record, the song saddles celebratory ripples with the burnt cedar smell of regret. Morris is aided in no small part by slide guitar from Tara Jane O’Neil, who is a welcome addition to the band for this track. Prior to the album Morris had sequestered himself away for nine-months of meditation, and the results build stories upon stories above last year’s Broken Stay Open Sky. This is Morris at his most focused, etching his tale in the rock and painting it across the walls with the pigment of earth and wood. He’s at his most pastoral, but also his most potent on this one.



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Thigh Master – “Mould Lines”

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Brisbane’s Thigh Master issue their second LP on Goner and its a bright shot of jangle for 2019. Their debut had a great deal of promise and Now For Example clearly makes good on it. The first taste of the album is the rollicking jangler “Mould Lines,” which jumps off from The Bats and Clean footprints with some kind of wicked glee. Spinning its hooks ‘round and ‘round in the sun, the song’s underpinned with the shaggy split ends of post-punk, but more often it’s reveling in the indie-pop tangles that run wild at its heart. The record hits the shelves September 27th.



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Fabulous Diamonds – G.B.H.

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This is not a band I’d expected to return to the fore. It’s been seven years since Melbourne duo Fabulous Diamonds issued their sorely overlooked Commercial Music. They’re still crawling through the murk, turning creeping menace into dub-flecked ambient anthems. “G.B.H” is lost in a miasma of haze, pulling bits of twisted John Carpenter synth through a fog of fear and doubt and dread. The band has always threaded the outskirts of pop, finding doors in that no one thought to explore. This album sees the band jump to A L T E R, who are quickly making an imprint picking up all manner of experimental impulses at home and abroad. The band’s last was actually the subject of Ripley Johnson’s Hidden Gems, feel free to check that here. The new LP arrives September 20th.



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Garcia Peoples “One Step Behind (Single Edit)”

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It would be disingenuous to say that Garcia Peoples rise over the past year has been anything short of impressive. Following their sophomore LP for Beyond Beyond is Beyond in February they’ve become staples of the live circuit in NYC (a quick dig through Archive.org or NYC Taper will confirm their prowess in the room). They’ve opened a slew of dates with Chris Forsyth and Kurt Vile, fleshed out their sound with the help of new permanent member Pat Gubler (Wet Tuna, P.G. Six), cut a lightning crack studio session with Hans Chew, and now they’re onto their second album of the year. Some might think the second helping would leave the band wanting for material, but it’s a goddamned smorgasbord at the Garcia’s house and we’re all invited. Taking their improvisational prowess from the stage to the reels, the band is issuing a 32-minute epoch of a title track that brings Guitarist Tom Malach’s father, Bob on board for a deep dive through space jazz that upends everything you’d expect going into a new Peoples record.

Diving deeper into the mercurial depths than they ever have before, the band eschews their usual groove to get lost in a bit of the cosmic wilds for a patch. Malach, the elder, used to knock down sessions with everyone from Miles Davis to Arto Lindsay to Stevie Wonder so this is no nepotism knockout, this is a familial team-up for the ages. Ah-ah, but you’re gonna have to wait until the full platter’s out of the oven to hear Bob’s double overdubbed sax goodness. Right here is the radio edit, a line closer to what they’ve been playing live for the track. Heard this the other night when they opened for KV and it hit just as hard — the band workin’ up their own “Playing in the Band’ alchemy. They sync up in full symbiosis, playing off of one another with the veracity of players with twice as many trips ‘round the sun and its a delight to watch.

The band’s Danny Arakaki peels back the curtain on One Step Behind’s origins. “We had a great time recording this track,” grins Arakaki. “Many highlights involved. One being, Tom’s dad, Bob Malach, coming to the studio to lay down the sax tracks (which you’ll hear later on the full-length album version of the song) and after killing it, casually saying, “fooled em’ again.” Great to see Tom and his dad work together. Every time we make the trip out to Black Dirt Studio we end up finding new sounds too. That has everything to do with the way Jason (Meagher) works with us. Positive vibes all around. Enjoy the changes and ride the tune.” The record lands October 18th on Beyond Beyond is Beyond. Best be ready.

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Kelley Stoltz – “Turning Into You”

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New burner on the line today from Kelley Stoltz. The San Francisco institution (20 years going with this release) continues his run of great solo LPs, while also serving as a go to engineer (Rays, The Mantles, Rat Columns) and sideman (Echo & The Bunnymen). His touring with the latter has definitely rubbed off a bit on his songwriting, but he’s spun the influence into some excellent New Wave-refracted pop tunes that crib the jangle and crunch of his early garage days and land his hooks with a softer blow. He’s back on Spanish outpost Banana & Louie, who also issued his 2018 record Natural Causes. Stoltz has a pretty heavy catalog to wade through, but this sounds like its shaping up to be one of his great ones. Check the first taste of My Regime below and look for it out next month.



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Moon Duo – “Lost Heads”

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Another gem drops from the new Moon Duo record and this time its a headier bit of ballast than the last time around. Where the title track to Stars Are The Light sparkled with enough shimmer to warrant its title, “Lost Heads” is a deeper dive into what Moon Duo do best. The track pulses with rhythm — hot, humid, palpable — but it also drips with the usual streaked condensation and liquid guitar intensity that the band’s been known for. While this album is pushing closer to the disco vein this time around, this is not the track for the floor, or at least the dancefloor. This is more of a lying on your back, staring at the ceiling, trying to come down affair. Moon Duo have built a legacy on splitting the veil between darkness and light and this is one of those tracks tottering on the knife edge they wield so well. Still very excited to have these guys playing the site’s upcoming 13th anniversary in November. Check back for a new announcement on that next week. Good news a’comin’.




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Wet Tuna – “Goin'”

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Couldn’t be more excited to have a new Wet Tuna up for grabs this morning. The last one hit hard, or it least it should have if you had the right kinda ears last year. This time the pairing of Matt (MV) Valentine and Pat (P.G. Six) Gubler is back to track your midnight ride into the subconscious, sub-dermal subject matter. The vibes are heady already as “Goin’” wafts into the room — the kind of molasses-milked twilight track that can hit just right when the brain’s in balance and the air is still. This is the core of Tuna — a humid seep of sound, a breath on the air that realigns the vibrations in the ether. “Goin” gets into the pores and never leaves.

Matt gives a little insight into how the track rose to the surface, “WET TUNA is wild & fun place for me. Pat & I have a language that seems to be unique to us…we don’t really talk about it and i reckon in many ways that’s what makes it cool. Anyway, that’s how it went down, via the jam, and how most of our music flows, we turn on the tubes and the tapes roll. I distinctly remember doing 3 “takes” of “goin’” — all with John Moloney on drums — he and i have been preserving it for a long time and the couch is flambeau comfy. He brought a pretty skeletal kit to the session, which was at my “Green Extension Studio B” in Vermont, and we left a lotta space. It’s a tight room. We tracked guitars live with drums and kept everything. Pat used a synth wah effect, I plugged in a Vox repeat percussion and Mutron. we used Gibson & Fender amps, did the vocals together in one or two takes. The lyrics came to me in a semina vision. Pat dubbed mellotron. it was around 4:20 in the afternoon, seriously, but it coulda been round midnight. Sunshine winter warmer…we had some Guinness in cans outside the window in a hanging pot from the night before, code name “water the plant” to grab a round. Pretty sure there were two left and we poured ‘em slow.”

New LP, Water Weird hits the shelves October 11th from the incontrovertible crew at Three Lobed.

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