I'm about a week late with this, but wanted to share not one but TWO songs from Thurston Moore's new musical project, Chelsea Light Moving. The line-up of the new band consists of Keith Wood (Hush Arbors), Samara Lubelski (Jackie-O Motherfucker) and John Moloney (Sunburned Hand Of The Man) and Thurston, channelling a heart that is, in his own words, "broken and blessed at the moment". After string-led subdued solo outings last summer, the introspective evaluations have morphed into crashing bolts of bright electricity; voices raised, heads in the sky, summoning the past, present and future, calling out, "We are the third eye of rock 'n' roll".
Download new song 'Frank O’Hara Hit' here (and read Thurston's introductory letter about the influences that led to it), and stream 'Burroughs', the first offering from the band, below.
My reigning memory of The Soft Pack was that they were my Valentine's date two years ago. With no romantic prospects on the horizon, and after many weeks of playing the band's self-titled second album on heavy rotation at the record shop we worked in, two friends and myself snapped up tickets and dodged the rose-toting couples along the North Laines to the safety of The Freebutt.
Arriving at the venue, suspicions that Brighton is, indeed, for lovers, were confirmed. For a band that everyone had been talking about for months before, and who were the cause of way too many bag clashes - they were giving them away free with the album, and the logo could probably be seen radiating across the ocean to the beaches of France - the place was almost dead with only a few fellow single folk propping up the bar. But when The Soft Pack took to the stage, any ounce of self-pitying was immediately forgotten. They tore through their set with energy and force, gathering the small crowd at the edges of the stage, delivering the probing lyrics in a more ferocious and challenging manner than when they were embedded among the pop riffs on record. I remember the whole show racing past until it was time for the curfew, and I walked back home never happier to have been date-less on February 14th.
After the show we didn't hear a lot from them again, but this month they have returned with a new song, 'Saratoga', taken from the upcoming album Strapped. I'm lucky enough to have heard the whole record thanks to work, and this track is only a small sample of what's to come - there are definite adventures into the world of Ariel Pink-style songwriting and some funkier stuff that works surprisingly well. But for now, I give you 'Saratoga'. It's good to have them back.
An evolving band of young future humans making truly irregular punk not quite comparable to anything else; the always excellent Sauna Youth will FINALLY release their debut long-player, DREAMLANDS on 3rd September, as a joint release between Gringo Records and Faux Discx. The band, attracted to the possibilities apparent within a DIY philosophy, have been self-recording and self-releasing their own music since 2010, creating a number of seven inches, splits and cassettes. DREAMLANDS will be the band's first long-player, marking the mutation of their sound and a new line-up.
Listen to the first song to come from within - 'PSI GIRLS'; an eloquent reflection of the lost ability to communicate, blunt of pace and with a brain-burrowing chorus that might just be the poppiest thing they've written to date. It's also a free download if you want to listen away from the computer screen...
Disclaimer: I would NEVER usually crib the press release, but it was co-written with the band (with an extract from a recent gig event, which I can't seem to find), so I can be a bit lazy, just for tonight. Sorry.
So you've had a big weekend, feeling out of sorts, maybe even a little queasy? Looking for something to ease the pain? You'd best look away. Thee Ludds' delightfully disjointed garage is 2.5mins of incessant organ and garish guitars, delivered with the demented persistence of a man alarmingly on the edge. The accompanying video contains some stomach-shocking imagery - raw cuts of meat on conveyor belts; pink offcuts sliding down industrial drops; frankfurters journeying over shiny steel; slabs of red flesh being stabbed at by knives. This ain't for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. You have been warned.
I'd heard some good people saying some good things about Cheatahs and so had a little listen today to 'Coared'. AND COR INDEED. Perhaps if Evan Dando had stayed on the straight and narrow and didn't write tracks to nod out to, this would have been the driving pop sound of The Lemonheads (who I love dearly, but it's fun to play the parallel universe game). I have a feeling this will be getting some more play tomorrow, and the next day, and the next...
The song is the title track from their new EP, which is being put out by Marshall Teller Records.
You can stream it in full here.
