The Baptist Generals will be putting out their first release in 10 years on May 21 via Sub Pop, and it’s titled Jackleg Devotional To The Heart. However, their latest single and video is for a non-album track called “Fly Candy Harvest.” The clip was directed by the band’s Jason Reimer. Watch it below.
Time Stays, We Go (Pitch Beast)—the Veils‘ 10-track, fourth release—is both patiently restrained and wildly emotional. It’s full of lush brass and sing-along melodies, moments of surf-rock guitar and beachside ukulele, and essential personal queries within the struggles of the human endeavor. It’s a small dose of Pixies, and definitely reminiscent of Talking Heads, with a nod toward Jeff Buckley. In other words, Time Stays has a familiar quality despite its newness, and it’s instantly likeable, much like frontman Finn Andrews himself. Andrews and bassist Sophia Burn will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Veils feature.
Finn: I would like to just briefly offer some words of encouragement to any of you up-n-comers out there (you precocious scallywags you) who might feel a burning desire to be a singer, but feel that their voice isn’t good enough.
Here comes a wee reminiscence: For at least the first three years I was singing, I was, without doubt, the worst singer in the history of the world … ever. My voice was unrelentingly nasal, out of tune, out of time and thoroughly unpleasant in just about any way you’d care to name. I used to record Van Morrison songs onto a Dictaphone then speed them up so that I could sing along with them, and it wasn’t pretty.
Depending on what you think of my voice now, this may or may not surprise you.
What I’d like to say though is, none of my favourite singers are very “good” singers. The voice is the most human instrument we have, and I like to hear all aspects of humanity in someone’s voice. Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Van Morrison, Janis Joplin, Shane McGowan, Nick Cave, Patti Smith, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash—voices full of ecstasy, hurt, hope, premonition and bile, these are the voices I want to hear coming out of my stereo. I worry the generation growing up now has been so bombarded with talent shows that they might think that unless you sing like an competitively epileptic parakeet you have no place opening your mouth. Bugger the showy histrionics; no one cares how many octaves you’ve got—you live in a cold and hostile universe where the only certainty is death: Just close your eyes, open wide, and let it all out.
Video after the jump.
Well, her moniker pretty much explains it all; she doesn’t really care how you perceiver her. Originating in Pennsylvania, Bitch has been putting out tracks since 1999. This July 16, Short Story Records will issue her latest LP, In Us We Trust, which showcases Bitch’s craft on the violin. Download the title track below.
“In Us We Trust” (download):
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Every Saturday, we’ll be posting a new illustration by David Lester. The Mecca Normal guitarist is visually documenting people, places and events from his band’s 29-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.
How about this? Y’all get 200 years worth of oil (you can handle yer own transport, etc.), and we get Washington, Oregon and Northern California? Y’all can keep L.A.. Deal contingent on Mike Jordan going to N. Korea to deliver a custom-designed pair of Nikes to KJU.
“Gravity Believes,” from Sitting On Snaps (Matador, 1995; Smarten UP!, 2009) (download):
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Time Stays, We Go (Pitch Beast)—the Veils‘ 10-track, fourth release—is both patiently restrained and wildly emotional. It’s full of lush brass and sing-along melodies, moments of surf-rock guitar and beachside ukulele, and essential personal queries within the struggles of the human endeavor. It’s a small dose of Pixies, and definitely reminiscent of Talking Heads, with a nod toward Jeff Buckley. In other words, Time Stays has a familiar quality despite its newness, and it’s instantly likeable, much like frontman Finn Andrews himself. Andrews and bassist Sophia Burn will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Veils feature.
Finn: I’m not sure if you’ve noticed this, but I like to wear hats. It’s become far more of a trademark of mine than I ever intended, but I’m still amazed at the fascination it seems to create in people even to this day. I’ve always hated my hair—before wavey, mousey and uncontrollable, now thinning at the crown and probably not long for this world given my father’s bright, shining dome. I’ve worn them since I was a kid, throughout my adolescence; now I put one on almost every time I take to a stage or do an interview, a kind of shield from the world, or I guess, yeah, a veil …
I remember when I first came to London to start the band being asked will we be signed under a band name or under mine. I couldn’t bear the idea of it being my name up there with nothing standing between me and everything else. The name the Veils was chosen as a deliberate reference to this. I thought of it as a sort of tarpaulin I could put up above my work bench so that no one could quite tell what was going on beneath it, and I think the hat is sort of an extension of this. I genuinely worry that if I take it off, my brain might just blow away.
Video after the jump.
The Dandy Warhols are known for their eccentric videos, and the latest one lives up to the standard. This clip for “Rest Your Head,” off This Machine (The End) and directed by Jean-Francois Rivard, shows the members of the Dandys getting their heads blown off in a robot factory. Watch it below.
Time Stays, We Go (Pitch Beast)—the Veils‘ 10-track, fourth release—is both patiently restrained and wildly emotional. It’s full of lush brass and sing-along melodies, moments of surf-rock guitar and beachside ukulele, and essential personal queries within the struggles of the human endeavor. It’s a small dose of Pixies, and definitely reminiscent of Talking Heads, with a nod toward Jeff Buckley. In other words, Time Stays has a familiar quality despite its newness, and it’s instantly likeable, much like frontman Finn Andrews himself. Andrews and bassist Sophia Burn will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Veils feature.
Soph: This is the song. I can’t give it up, now. I think I first heard it on the soundtrack to Basquiat. Maybe that’s a little embarrassing to admit, that I didn’t hear it when my impeccable eye picked it out of a dusty second-hand record shop. I heard it in a film that I loved, that I’ve later discovered not everyone loved, that may not even be a great film, but I loved it, and I can still do a really good impression of David Bowie doing an impression of Andy Warhol.
But so this is how I heard the song. It wasn’t until much later that someone told me Dylan wrote it and Beck had sampled it. I just really liked it.
It’s a great song. It’s like the ultimate song. It’s got everything. It’s a love song, and it’s a heartbroken love song, but with that resignation/snideness that I love in heartbroken love songs. Like “Miss You” and “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome” and “I Break Horses.”
Then it’s got Van and bass to die for and one of the most beautiful melodies of all time. How did they even do that bass? What is that? It says something about me, maybe, that I don’t actually even know how to play it. But the thing is, the thing that I think as well is true of most great bass, is that I could learn to play this, and torture everyone in soundchecks, but it wouldn’t mean anything without the song. I’d have to teach everyone to play along, for it to make any sense at all.
I don’t think any of this is why I love this song so much. But maybe it is. I don’t know why I love this song so much. I just really love this song.
Video after the jump.
Ohio native Louis Matteo just released his latest LP, Patchwork Pattern, via Neon Castle Records. This 10-track artifact is the follow-up to 2007 debut Confront The Congregation. Set aside 3:25 to check out the opening track off of the album, “Blossom.” Download it below.
“Blossom” (download):
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Time Stays, We Go (Pitch Beast)—the Veils‘ 10-track, fourth release—is both patiently restrained and wildly emotional. It’s full of lush brass and sing-along melodies, moments of surf-rock guitar and beachside ukulele, and essential personal queries within the struggles of the human endeavor. It’s a small dose of Pixies, and definitely reminiscent of Talking Heads, with a nod toward Jeff Buckley. In other words, Time Stays has a familiar quality despite its newness, and it’s instantly likeable, much like frontman Finn Andrews himself. Andrews and bassist Sophia Burn will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Veils feature.
Finn: After throwing in his shiny yamulka with the mighty Silver Jews, David Berman went on to publish Actual Air, one of my favourite collections of poetry in decades, and also write and curate for his blog, Menthol Mountains.
This online scrapbook covers a range of subjects, including the results of his first ever Google search in 2000 for “Civil War + Nude Girls” and a lengthy article about spontaneous male aggression shown towards unicyclists.
There are few people in the world we would like to hang out with as much as David Berman, and we wish he’d give us some more songs.
Until then, we urge you strongly to check out his blog.
Video after the jump.
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