Hailing from the Junction, and citing influences like Wilco, Kurt Vile, and Cage the Elephant  – the band is a fully collaborative endeavour of Toronto music stalwarts Damian Coleman (vocals, bass), Edmund Cummings (vocals, keys), Craig Keeney (lead guitar), Phil Skot (drums) and Dave Suchon (vocals, guitar). Dripping guitar tones, billowing keyboard melodies, and defiant bass / drums all contribute to the textured sound of The Sarandons. Songs are bittersweet, rich with nostalgia and tell stories that are familiar but just out of reach.   “This past year has been the ultimate test of whether familiarity breeds contempt. When you’re marooned at sea together, all sorts of things start to creep in. More insidious than contempt, the people we’re locked in with start to become another piece of furniture in our lives. Days are on repeat and it’s the struggle against these enemies that we tried to capture in this song.” – Dave Suchon (The Sarandons)

“NOFX Los Angeles punk veterans’ latest record tackles everything from drug addiction to mortality.” – COS

“If you think you’ve heard it all before from the veteran punks, this record begs to differ.” – Kerrang!

“NOFX’s Fat Mike on His Sobriety, Sexuality: ‘I Think I Came Out of the Closet Even More’”– SPIN

“Single Album a reflection of Fat Mike’s time with drugs and as such majority of the songs are quite intense” 8/10 Wall Of Sound

“Fat Mike’s evident enthusiasm for this collection–and newfound sobriety doesn’t mean sacrificing any of the band’s existing and beloved characteristics” Hysteria

“Fat Mike returns bearing the gift of his wisdom, sharing pocket sized tips that we can carry around throughout the day on our own pursuit of happiness”  Blunt Mag

Fat Wreck Chords and longstanding California punk band NOFX are thrilled to present Single Album, the band’s 14th full-length studio album, out now. As frontman Fat Mike explains, “Single Album was initially supposed to be twice as long, as I wanted to make a perfect double album, and I didn’t accomplish that, so I decided to just make a single album, hence the title.”

Single Album is available to stream on all platforms, with the physical product on hand via FAT’s Web Store.

Check out the music video for “Fuck Euphemism”
View the music video for “Linewleum”

Nearly 40 years in, what else is there to say about NOFX?

And aside from the occasional negative headline, how can one of the pioneers of SoCal punk—a style hardly known for experimentation—surprise anyone these days?

The answers lie on Single Album (Fat Wreck Chords, Feb. 26), NOFX’s 14th full-length studio album. There’s the nearly six-minute post-hardcore opener (“The Big Drag”). The meta sendoff for the band’s best-known song (“Linewleum”). The reggae-inflected song about a mass shooting (“Fish in a Gun Barrel”). Even a piano ballad (“Your Last Resort”).

It is, as frontman and bassist Fat Mike repeatedly describes, “a dark album.” That wasn’t the original intent. By early 2020, NOFX—which includes guitarist El Hefe, guitarist Eric Melvin, and drummer Smelly—had written and recorded enough songs for a planned double album to be released that fall. Like so much about 2020, those plans changed.

“When you write a double album, you write differently,” Mike says. “I was writing really different songs, and some fun songs, but you have to make a double album interesting enough to listen to the whole way. I wanted to make a perfect double album, and I didn’t accomplish that. So I decided to just make a single album, hence the title.”

Recorded at Motor Studios in San Francisco with Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore (Rise Against, Alkaline Trio, Teenage Bottlerocket), Single Album pares down the roughly 23 songs NOFX tracked. “I just kept adding songs,” Mike says. “I was maybe a little out of my mind.”

How so? “I was pretty high on drugs that year,” he adds. While fans may wonder what else is new, Single Album casts the frontman’s habits in a surprisingly harsh light. While “Grieve Soto” eulogises beloved Adolescents founder Steve Soto, it takes a meta turn when Eric Melvin warns Mike to be “cautious, more respectful, less obnoxious.”“Birmingham” has what people in recovery call “a moment of clarity,” when he realised he was an addict.

“That was a clarity moment in my life when I was by myself, and the sun’s coming up, and I’m scraping cocaine off the floor, like, ‘Eww, gross. I shouldn’t be doing this,’” Mike says. “So what did I do? I ordered more.” After being hospitalised with a bleeding ulcer—a terrifying experience that caused him to vomit blood—Mike entered rehab in fall 2020. He promptly wrote another new album while there and has been sober since.

Unsurprisingly, Single Album represents his most personal work to date. Heartbreak permeates “I Love You More Than I Hate Me” and “Your Last Resort.” “Fuck Euphemism” dives into Mike’s sexuality for a “pronoun bar fight.” “Doors and Fours” is a grim look into the early ’80s LA punk scene, when dozens of people—many of them Mike’s friends—overdosed on a prescription drug combo. “The Big Drag” is a personal vow to make the most of life, even when it undeniably sucks. “It’s one of my favourite NOFX songs ever. I don’t get sick of listening to that song,” Mike says of “The Big Drag.” “No measure is the same length. Every time a new chord change happens, there’s a different rhythm to the guitar. The bass never stays on one note. You’re not sure when the chords are going to change because they always change at a different point.”

In other words, it’s unpredictable—just like NOFX. Turns out there is a lot to say about them, even after all this time.

Maceo Plex leads official remix EP for Chromatics – Shadow

Watch the official music for Shadow (Maceo Plex Remix) here

Also featuring new edits and remixes from Dean Hurley, Melawati, Acorne and more

Shadow is widely recognised from David Lynch’s cult classic TV series, Twin Peaks

CHROMATICS – SHADOW (REMIXES)
ITALIANS DO IT BETTER
OUT NOW
____________________________________________________________________________________

Acclaimed U.S live electronic band Chromatics announce remix package for their classic single, Shadow. Featuring remixes from Maceo Plex, Dean Hurley, Melawati, Acorne and two new edits of the original version, Chromatics – Shadow (Remixes) is out now via Italians Do It Better.

A collection of remixes which takes the much-loved original in a new direction from the dancefloor to cinematic-sounding reworks, Shadow was originally released in 2015 and swiftly became one of the standout entries in Chromatics’ impressive discography. Picking up early and key industry support from the likes of Pitchfork, Shadow rose to fame in late 2016 when Chromatics performed the track in David Lynch’s cult tv series, Twin Peaks (Season 3). The band took to the stage at fictional venue, The Roadhouse and in turn catapulted the track to mainstream success.

Leading the remixes, Maceo Plex transforms Shadow into a euphoric dance floor production. One of the many avenues of his vast musical skill set, Maceo Plex is the figurehead behind the seminal underground label, Ellum Audio, and has released four studio albums, mix compilations for London’s fabric and !K7’s DJ-Kicks series, along with productions under his Mariel Ito and Maetrik aliases. Also curating several BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix’s and gracing the cover of many a magazine from Mixmag to DJ Mag, Maceo Plex has provided official remixes for artists including Coldcut, Röyksopp, GusGus, DJ T, Maribou State, Perry Farrell, Faithless, New Order and more.

With the release of today’s new remixes, Chromatics pay tribute and honour the death of Twin Peaks’ fictional character, Laura Palmer who was originally portrayed by Sherly Lee. Laura Palmer was found murdered at the age of seventeen, on the morning of February 24, 1989. An event that shook the small town of Twin Peaks to its core and prompted an investigation by protagonist and FBI agent, Dale Cooper.

The release of Shadow (Remixes) marks Chromatics’ entrance in 2021 with the full EP now available to purchase here.

Tracklist:

1. Shadow (Maceo Plex Remix)
2. Saturday (Dean Hurley Remix)
3. Shadow (Melawati Remix)
4. Shadow (Michel’s Runway Edit)
5. Shadow (Last Dance Of The Night Club Edit)
6. Windswept (Acorne Remix)

Chromatics – Shadow (Remixes) – Out now via Italians Do It Better

Connect with Chromatics

Connect with Maceo Plex

 

February 28, 2021 0 comments

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For Those That Wish To Exist, the ninth studio record from England-based post-metalcore quintet Architects, is out now via Epitaph Records.

LISTEN TO FOR THOSE WHO WISH TO EXIST

The self-produced record finds Architects tackling the biggest questions facing the future of our planet with their grandest, most expansive sonic offering yet building upon the band’s hallmark post-metalcore sound by layering a burgeoning influence of electronics and orchestral strings, horns and choirs. The result is a rich tapestry that transcends the limitations of genre and rewards exploration and immersion in its journey.

The record’s 15-tracks hang in a limbo between energising positivity that it is not too late to correct our collective course and paralysing negativity of defeatism; where hope and despondency are bed-fellows triggered daily by the simple act of existence. A reflection of the human condition, For Those That Wish To Exist calls for all of us to rise to challenge established models and strive for a collective betterment. Such concerns that have long been prevalent in the music of a band who have continually championed and shared their platform with causes such as Sea Shepherd, are outspoken critics of barbaric exercises such as fox hunting, and who focus on sustainability in everything from their touring to merch production.

The album’s singles “Meteor,” “Dead Butterflies,” “Black Lungs,” and colossal single “Animals” have amassed 26M+ streams and 11.5M+ YouTube views.

EARLY ACCLAIM FOR FOR THOSE THAT WISH TO EXIST

“Put simply, ‘For Those That Wish To Exist’ is the most textured, thoughtful and utterly fearless Architects have ever been, and kicks off a new bright and boundless new chapter for one of the UK’s most incredible and intoxicating bands.” – Rock Sound

“For Those That Wish To Exist is their magnum opus” – Upset

“The Brighton’s band ninth album is, improbably, a fresh start. With a cleaner sonic palette and orchestral flourishes, it’s proof of their enduring creativity” – 4 stars,  NME AU

“By listening to this album over and over again, you’ll subliminally be listening to what Architects are educating us about through their heavy, soothing and beautifully crafted music. From there, you can take your life into your own hands and play your part… but you better hurry up” – 9/10 Wall Of Sound

“This is Architects stepping up to the plate. Cohesive, coherent and demanding of us an explanation, ‘For Those…’ shall not relent until wrongs have been righted, and being this righteous never sounded so good” – 4/5 Dork 

LISTEN NOW

“brief and triumphant … it’s a big, sticky, fuzzy alt-rock song with a drum-machine beat and a tough-sounding hardcore bassline.” – Stereogum on “Are You Sure?”

“Russin delivers full-throated testaments to the struggles of living through each day without curling up into the fetal position on the ground. It’s stirring, and addictive, and unadorned—catchy Beatles-punk anthems at their finest.” – The A.V. Club

“This one’s a lot more atmospheric and subdued than the two previous singles, which were closer to Title Fight’s loud, driving sound, but it’s still unmistakably the work of Ned Russin and a very compelling song.” – BrooklynVegan on “Life Is Not A Lesson”

Glitterer has released its sophomore album Life Is Not A Lesson today; a collection of deceptively upbeat, synth-infused introspective rock music, listen to it HERE.

Washington, D.C. resident and northeastern Pennsylvania native Ned Russin co-fronted Title Fight for many years before the band suspended operations and Russin became Glitterer. He initially self-released two EP’s that were odd, charming, clever, eloquent, and highly proficient records, hand-made in the spartan bedroom-pop mode: some programmed drums and keyboards with an electric bass and a voice. The songs were about the trap of self-awareness and the impossible dream of self-negation; and despite their being, combined, all of about 18 minutes long, they left long-lasting impressions, stuck themselves in peoples’ heads and stayed put.

His debut album was released in the summer of 2019, a faintly remembered and much-romanticised period during which musicians were criss-crossing the world, performing live and in the flesh for crowds well in excess of five people. We all know what has happened since: across-the-board erasure of every single presupposition and condition-to-be-taken-for-granted. A sudden and comprehensive blanking of the slate. A whole new world and a whole new metaphysical terrain. And into this new context of no context comes Life Is Not A Lesson.

With roomier drums and more electric-guitars-per-square-inch than ever, Life is Not a Lesson has a way of evoking an alternate-universe version of Guided By Voices, one with a hardcore-punk background. And if there was, perhaps, an indirect or “meta” aspect to the pop appeal of Glitterer’s older records, there’s essentially none of that here: this is Glitterer’s most insistently and proudly accessible work.

Lyrically, as with the prior catalogue, many of the songs on the new record are short, dialectical considerations of the countless daily miniature panic attacks that attend the rigorously examined life. Take, as a prime example, the epistemological riddle “Are You Sure? (“Feel it in my spine / Certainty is mine / Are you sure?”), whose arrangement combines the tension-building properties of GBV’s “Hot Freaks” with the tension-resolving blast of something like “Gouge Away” (that’s the song, not the band). Life is Not a Lesson proves to be a rigorous reckoning with the life of the mind at a time when there’s not much life outside the mind.

“The major theme in Life Is Not A Lesson is desire,” Russin explains. “ “Are You Sure?” is a song about certainty. My younger self was fascinated with and comfortable in assurances. I felt very sure I had the answers to a lot of questions. What am I doing with my life? What do I like? Who am I? My current self not so much. This song addresses the desires to find these answers while admittedly contradicting itself in the face of their questions, unsure if they’re even important to answer in the first place.