Will Sheff - Pale Blue Eyes

Photo - Bret Curry

Will Sheff - Enstrangement Zone.

Today, Will Sheff known for leading the critically acclaimed indie-rock stalwarts Okkervil River across nine beloved albums announces ‘Nothing Special’, his debut solo album set for release on 7th October via ATO Records.

While Sheff acknowledges that the album’s title opens him up to some cheap digs from music writers, ‘Nothing Special’ is not mere self-deprecation: it’s a record that wrestles with the dream of rock and roll exceptionalism and the realignment of values necessary to move past youthful delusion and give your day-to-day life a more mature sense of meaning and hope.

Says Sheff, “When I was just a kid, I got caught up in the dream of being a rock and roll star. Like so many other young people, I fell in love with the idea of being called to this glorious path outside of ordinary life. And I ended up in a band with people who felt this same call - especially our brilliant drummer Travis Nelsen, who was like a brother to me. We would trade tales of hilarious antics and outrageous excess and tragic death like they were almost scripture. Travis and I fell out painfully, and he died in the early weeks of lockdown. I think a big part of ‘Nothing Special’ centres around grieving for him, grieving for everything my friends have lost, grieving for the rock and rock and roll myth, and trying to open my eyes to a more transcendent reality.”

Sheff sets this emotional journey to arrangements that contain subtle surprises, referencing baroque pop, blurred-lens synth ballads, sci-fi psychedelia and the widescreen ambience of 1970s and ‘80s ECM Records releases. It’s a record that follows its own idiosyncratic yet intuitive internal logic as we follow Sheff — and his expansive list of collaborators — into whatever’s next for us, both individually and collectively.

Accompanying today’s announcement is a video for ‘Estrangement Zone', a song that sets Sheff’s less-than-hopeful vision of society’s decline to retrofuturistic digital timbres more associated with Oneohtrix Point Never or Boards Of Canada than Okkervil River. Directed by Johnny North and prominently featuring Marcus Paek as a character simply called The Youth, it’s a mystical desert fantasy that’s part ‘Dune’, part ‘Stalker’. Says Sheff: “I think of the ‘Estrangement Zone’ video as a kind of magical spell the crew and I were trying to cast — a parable about endings and beginnings happening simultaneously.”

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Photo - Honey Davis Wilkinson

Pale Blue Eyes - Little Gem.

Following the announcement of their debut album Souvenirs, coming out on September 2 via Full Time Hobby (Dana Gavanski, Silverbacks), Devon’s Pale Blue Eyes has today shared a new track from the record. The accompanying video, directed by Dylan Friese-Green and Aubrey Simpson, captures the band on the road, crammed into a Nissan Micra, cruising through the English countryside. Watch it here

Speaking of the track, the band said “Little Gem is about relationships and gardening. We call Lucy [PBE drums and synths] The Emo Gardener. She’d painstakingly cultivate her little greenhouse only to be left distraught when the tomatoes got blight – swearing and weeping by the compost heap. The song is a metaphor for our band's journey. It’s about breaking down, then finding a way around – growing new tunes, cultivating them and sometimes having to start again from scratch.”

Souvenirs was recorded in PBE’s own Penquit Mill studio, just south of Dartmoor, the studio having been funded by a bank loan and endless part-time jobs. PBE are the couple Lucy and Matt Board, crucially aided by Motown-mad bassist Aubrey Simpson. Matt (vocals/guitar) and Lucy (drums/electronics) met at Dartington College of Arts in South Devon, a storied establishment that’s been enlivened over the years by people including Igor Stravinksy, Yul Brynner and John Cage. Lucy’s dissertation was titled “An Investigation into Sheffield's Alternative Music Scene Between 1973 and 1978, with Particular Reference to Cabaret Voltaire.” The PBE album was mixed and mastered by Dean Honer (Eccentronic Research Council, Moonlandingz). Dean has been an integral part of Sheffield's electronic scene and has mixed artists including Róisín Murphy, The Human League and Add N To (X).

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Pale Blue Eyes - Well Wisher - Poolblood - The Local Honeys

Photo - Sophie Jouvenaar

Pale Blue Eyes - Star Vehicle.

Following the announcement of their debut album Souvenirs, coming out on September 2, Totnes’ Pale Blue Eyes yesterday shared a new track from the record.

“It’s a hopeful and uplifting track,” says PBE singer/guitarist Matt Board. “It’s about daydreaming of the future and riding out difficult times together – kind of fantasizing about somewhere far away. It touches on times at art college, where there was a student bar called The Rat & Emu, out in the middle of the countryside. I remember the stars seemed so bright overhead.”

Souvenirs was recorded in PBE’s own Penquit Mill studio, just south of Dartmoor, the studio having been funded by a bank loan and endless part-time jobs. PBE are the couple Lucy and Matt Board, crucially aided by Motown-mad bassist Aubrey Simpson. Matt (vocals/guitar) and Lucy (drums/electronics) met at Dartington College of Arts in South Devon, a storied establishment that’s been enlivened over the years by people including Igor Stravinksy, Yul Brynner and John Cage.

Lucy’s dissertation was titled “An Investigation into Sheffield's Alternative Music Scene Between 1973 and 1978, with Particular Reference to Cabaret Voltaire.” The PBE album was mixed and mastered by Dean Honer (Eccentronic Research Council, Moonlandingz). Dean has been an integral part of Sheffield's electronic scene and has mixed artists including Róisín Murphy, The Human League and Add N To (X).

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Well Wisher - Need You Around.

Egghunt's brand new signing, NJ Pop-Punks Well Wisher are sharing a video for "Need You Around" - a love song written for lead singer Natalie Newbold's partner which features the band performing in front of fan-submitted photos of things they "need around."

We're not announcing the album quite yet, but you can preview the whole thing below and you're welcome to say there's an LP forthcoming in the fall.

The album is fantastic, a great fusion of the band's punk roots with strong melodic and raw production influences from the Pixies, Elliott Smith, Phoebe Bridgers. Listen to the "alone in a room" acoustic ballad "Emily" which sounds like it was captured almost by mistake, with Natalie left alone in the studio late, or the massive hooks on "Panic" and "Do Better."

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Poolblood - twinkle.

About "twinkie": "A song I wrote about the tenderness of time, time as a source of love, and the way time is the ultimate parent. Starting over is as sweet as a golden sponge cake. My dearest friend Shamir, played guitar and drums and my friend Grant played bass on a rainy day in Fishtown Philadelphia."  - Maryam Said

About the "twinkie" Video: The song "twinkie" is about starting over so it was great timing to have Emma (Cosgrove) and I shoot the video while the flowers were blooming. Emma had some previous footage from a film she was working on about flowers. I've always been a huge fan of Emma's work and her artistic eye, so I was excited to work with her.  It was shot on film on a beautiful spring day after we both had two iced Americanos."

Poolblood, the musical nom-de-plume of Toronto’s Maryam Said, is an ethereal spirit of punk rock, swirling and dancing in the air with a collection of gorgeously orchestrated bedroom pop music. Raised in a religious household at arm’s length from popular music, they nonetheless found themselves drawn in by the music of Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), who left an indelible  imprint on Said’s relationship to music and songwriting.

The results of their upbringing–time spent practicing chords in guitar class, learning about hardcore from friends after school and honing their songwriting as an early teen–is a winding path of melody, making stops along the way to dabble in everything from noise rock to lush and gorgeous pop hooks.

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The Local Honeys - Throw Me in the Thicket.

-“Growing up on an orchard was a gift,” says Linda Jean Stokley who, along with Montana Hobbs, makes up one of Kentucky’s most treasured musical acts of this century, The Local Honeys. “I grew up surrounded by plants and animals and people who knew how to care for them.” The orchard Stokley speaks of is the centerpiece of The Local Honeys’ brand new tune, “Throw Me in the Thicket (When I Die),” a beautiful mix of sweet, clawhammer banjo, rock and roll drums, and melodic vocal and fiddle lines fit for such a touching tribute. 

“‘Throw Me In The Thicket’ is somewhat of a love story to my home,” says Stokley. “I never want to leave.” Last Wednesday, The Bluegrass Situation premiered “Throw Me in the Thicket (When I Die).”

“Throw Me in the Thicket (When I Die)” comes from The Local Honeys’ upcoming self-titled LP, out July 15th. Their first release on La Honda Records (Colter Wall, Riddy Arman, Vincent Neil Emerson), The Local Honeys features ten winsome vignettes of rural Kentucky, conjuring 90’s alternatives sounds with hillbilly Radiohead lilts, soaring above layers of deep grooves and rich tones masterfully curated by longtime mentor Jesse Wells, a GRAMMY-nominated producer, musician (currently a member of Tyler Childers’ band The Food Stamps), and Assistant Director at the Kentucky Center for Traditional Music at Morehead State.

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Pale Blue Eyes - Lucigenic

Pale Blue Eyes - Globe.

Pale Blue Eyes’ excelsior modernist pop music is rooted in Devon and Sheffield. The group’s debut album, Souvenirs – out September 2 – brims with the influence of both the Steel City – home of British electronic music – and the psychedelic Southwestern greenery that surrounds the band at their South Devon HQ. The album will be released by the Full Time Hobby label.

Souvenirs was recorded in PBE’s own Penquit Mill studio, just south of Dartmoor, the studio having been funded by a bank loan and endless part-time jobs. PBE are the couple Lucy and Matt Board, crucially aided by Motown-mad bassist Aubrey Simpson. Matt (vocals/guitar) and Lucy (drums/electronics) met at Dartington Art College in South Devon, a storied establishment that’s been enlivened over the years by people including Igor Stravinksy, Yul Brynner and John Cage. Lucy’s dissertation was titled “An Investigation into Sheffield's Alternative Music Scene Between 1973 and 1978, with Particular Reference to Cabaret Voltaire.” The PBE album was mixed and mastered by Dean Honer (Eccentronic Research Council, Moonlandingz). Dean has been an integral part of Sheffield's electronic scene and has mixed artists including Róisín Murphy, The Human League and Add N To (X).

PBE’s 2021 self-released debut single Motionless/Chelsea was given much praise. MOJO: “A shimmering Kraut-rail trip to Asgard.” Louder Than War: “Astonishing… conducting Neu! on a ride to the far pop pavilions.” Follow-up single TV Flicker was playlisted at BBC 6 Music. Now, new single Globe continues the PBE singles trajectory, with a track named after a shared student house, in Totnes in Devon. Globe Cottage had previously been a pub, called The Globe.

“The single,” says Matt, “takes its name from this shared house me and Lucy lived in. The track is about a blissful time of parties, of not having a care in the world, all the characters than came and went over the years. The rent was so cheap, it all seemed so easy. The world has changed in the meantime… Rents have rocketed. Life for many people is now harder.”

The PBE album brims with a kind of elective positivity, as made clear when Matt lists the album’s themes: “Embracing good times, losing yourself in a moment of bliss when the world around you is going to shit… Processing and understanding loss and grief and using music as a vehicle to move on… Fighting against the mundane and not giving up on dreams… The pure joy of a good night out or a moment of being moved by a band or a piece of artwork or a great film… Making the most of the time you have.”

 
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Lucigenic - Joy.

With flecks of Patti Smith, Blondie and Belly, Mancunian post-punk group Lucigenic have shared their jubilant and driving new track “Joy”. Combining Lucy Davies compelling vocal delivery with dynamic and jangling alt-rock melodies and capacious choruses, “Joy” finds a hypnotic middle-ground between the gritty, overcast punk of earlier single “Still Breathing” and the chiffony dreamscapes on its predecessor “Hope”.

Inspired by the simple pleasures in life away from the desire for fame and veneration, “Joy” is the third of three tracks recorded by the alt-rock outfit in a session at Far Heath Studio. With production by esteemed producer Mike Bennett (The Fall, Fat White Family, Ian Brown) and Angus Wallace on engineering duties, the single is a scintillating slice of grunge-tinged bliss and is the title track from Lucigenic’s limited edition 10 inch vinyl EP set for release later this year.

Adding more sparks of electricity to an already glistening track, Lucigenic are joined by Mark Refoy (Spiritualized, Spacemen 3) on guitar and drumming legend Dave Barbarossa (Bow Wow Wow, Republica) whose unique style and drum beats lend perfect synergy to a punk-tinged track.  Building up to a dynamic climax that nods to classic alt-rock whilst simultaneously carving out its own path, “Joy” is an adroit and exuberant cut from a band swiftly becoming masters of their craft.  

Coming as a follow-up to the band’s debut EP ‘1’, released in 2020 and featuring tracks with Spencer Birtwistle (Intastella, The Fall) and original drummer Stewart Burnett (The Cheaters), “Joy” has gained early praise from Neil March (6 Music Introducing panel) who wrote on his blog Trust The Doc: “Nice reverberant production suits the guitar-driven style and big melody that fills the chorus. This is agreeably loud, melodic and bristling with energy and attitude. The Title is definitely appropriate”.  With their next live show lined up for Liverpool’s Resistance Street Pro-Creative All-Dayer event on 1st May, Lucigenic also have new material and future collaborations in the pipeline, with more news to come…

Lucigenic · Joy

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