Crocodiles have announced details of their sixth LP. Set for release on October 21st via the band’s own label, Zoo Music, they preview Dreamless with infectious lead single & opening track ‘Telepathic Lover’.
Comprised of best friends Brandon Welchez and Charles Rowell, Crocodiles have earned their place as one of the United States’ most engaging, hardworking and consistent rock and roll bands of the past few years. Dreamless is the pair’s sixth LP, and is, at once, their most exploratory and focused release.
Whereas Crocodiles’ first two albums made their home amongst a stew of fuzzed-out psychedelia, and the following three albums explored Welchez and Rowell’s penchant for placing pop sensibilities against whirring guitars and barbed production, Dreamless sees the duo endeavoring on an artistic departure that positions their guitars in the backseat in favor of a more spacious, synthesizer and piano driven sound.
“We’ve always been a guitar band and I think we just wanted to challenge ourselves and our aesthetic,” says Welchez. “It didn’t start as a conscious decision but within the first week Charlie’s mantra became ‘fuck guitars’. Only one song has zero guitar but in general we tried to find alternatives to fill that space.”
The title of the album works on both a literal and metaphorical level: “I suffered insomnia throughout the whole session. I was literally dreamless,” explains Welchez. “The past two years had been fraught with difficulty for us - relationship troubles, career woes, financial catastrophe, health issues,” he continues. “In that pessimistic mindset it was easy to feel as if the dream was over.”
The pair recorded the 10-track Dreamless in Mexico City over the course of 6 weeks. Having become something of a spiritual (and in the case of Welchez, literal) home to the duo, choosing D.F. as the location for recording allowed them to again hook-up with friend and occasional bandmate Martin Thulin (also a member of post punks Exploded View). Between them, the trio shared instrument duties, with Welchez and Rowell handling the lion’s share of guitar and bass, Thulin and Welchez the live drum work, and Thulin focusing largely on keys.
“Our relationship with Martin will serve as a pivotal point in our band’s history,” comments Rowell. “On this album Martin continued his efforts to help us take our songwriting and aesthetics to further reaches.”
Thulin’s work on Dreamless is in keeping with the exemplary production found on Crocodiles previous releases and reconciles the band’s realigned focus on keys with their experiments of often pairing down the instrumentation to allow lyrical sentiments and themes to cut through to the fore. It’s an approach that has paid off, enabling the band to take more risks, both artistically and emotionally.
“And you’ll burn and weep and suffer,” says the chilling spoken-word sample that opens Dreamless. “The sample is from a Christian preacher that we found over 15 years ago and used on the first 7” we ever did together when we were still teenagers” explains Brandon Welchez. “Back then we used it with a sense of humor, laughing at the whole ridiculous guilt trip vibe. But hearing it again in our apartment in Mexico City, within the context of the words we were singing, it took on a different air. It lost the humorous aspect and just seemed like a commentary on life.”
An unsettling insight certainly, but if Crocodiles did indeed have to burn, weep and suffer in order to write and record Dreamless, then it was damn well worth it.
The official release of the infamous 1988 film THE SOUND OF PROGRESS. This DVD has been completely remastered / authored from the original master film stock. The documentary shows the mindset of the some of the most original and influential artists of the experimental scene. An unprecedented insight into the workings, the methods and the ideas that made these names legendary. Filmed in Hamburg, Amsterdam and London.
With COIL – CURRENT 93 – FOETUS – TEST DEPT.
Interviews – live material – studio work – opinion. DVD case with 6 panel booklet containing liner notes by David Keenan.
The DVD also includes a gallery of never before seen pictures of each band.
Director: Alexander Oey Producer: Marc Van Der Bijl / Justin Mitchell. Region 0 / Region Free.
Pixies announce that their sophomore “post-reunion” album, Head Carrier, will be released on September 30 (Pixiesmusic/Play It Again Sam) The 12-track collection of the band’s unique aural mix of surrealism, psychedelia, dissonance and surf rock was produced by Tom Dalgety (Killing Joke, Royal Blood) and recorded at London's Rak Studios from mid-February through to mid-March this year. Fans can get a taste of the new music by going to pixiesmusic.com and checking out the first single, "Um Chagga Lagga." Featuring original artwork by the band's longtime art director, the legendary Vaughan Oliver, the album will be available in various formats and can be pre-ordered now; go to Pixiesmusic.com for details and purchasing.
A special limited edition deluxe box set of Head Carrier will be available exclusively through Pixiesmusic.com, and will include the CD, the album on heavy-weight/180 grams black vinyl, and a 24-page, oversized booklet with the song's lyrics and Oliver's evocative, original artwork. Also available only through the band's website is a special bundle that includes the deluxe box set, special t-shirt, and a special screen printed 12 "x 12" record sleeve-sized poster of Oliver's album artwork.
To support Head Carrier, Pixies will launch the first leg of their 2016 - 2017 global tour with a European run that begins November 15 in Vienna. Tickets go on sale Friday, July 8. Confirmed dates are below; go to pixiesmusic.com for ticketing info.
For the first time since their very early days, the Pixies spent a total of six weeks in pre-production, writing, arranging and rehearsing a plethora of songs. Between the band's late-80s/early 90s touring schedule and delivering an album once a year, there simply wasn't time for more than a day or so of fleshing out their music before recording started.
"This was a wonderful luxury, for us to have the time to be able to really work these new songs out," said Pixies drummer David Lovering. "By the time we started recording, we all knew the songs backwards and forwards, so it took half as long for us to make this album as it did to make 'Indie Cindy.' And it was great working with Tom...he started with us in pre-production and played a big part in keeping us focused on making the best music we could.”
In addition, the band - Lovering, rhythm guitarist/vocalist Black Francis and guitarist Joey Santiago - officially welcome bassist Paz Lenchantin to the Pixies' permanent line-up. Lenchantin has been the band's touring bassist since January 2014, and played an integral part in the recording of Head Carrier. Her cool and dreamy soprano can be heard singing lead on the track "All I Think About Now."
"I was very nervous in the beginning when I went to that first rehearsal," said Lenchantin.
"There were these shoes I felt I had to fill and I tried to do the best I could for the fans, to make the live performances sound true to the originals. I spent three years learning to understand what being a Pixie meant, and now, my heart, spirit, and love for their music is embedded in me and I feel like I have become a Pixie. We had been more about the history of the Pixies, but now, we are about going forward."
"Paz is a joy to be around," added Lovering. "She's very funny, and we're having more fun than we've ever had as a band, we all have a blast together, on and off stage."
All songs were written by the Pixies apart from “All I Think About Now,” which was written by Francis and Lenchantin. The track listing for Head Carrier is as follows:
Head Carrier
Classic Masher
Baal’s Back
Might As Well Be Gone
Oona
Talent
Tenement Song
Bel Esprit
All I Think About Now
Um Chagga Lagga
Plaster Of Paris
All The Saints
Confirmed dates for Pixies European dates are:
NOVEMBER
15 Stadthalle, Vienna, Austria
16 HWS Arena, Poznan, Poland
17 Forum Karlin Hall, Prague, Czech Republic
18 Auditorium Stravinski, Montreux, Switzerland
20 Sant Jordi Club, Barcelona, Spain
21 Coliseum, Porto, Portugal
23 Zenith, Paris, France
25 Lotto, Antwerp, Belgium
27 HMH, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Belgian’s most talked about shoegazer’s, have announced the release of their new single, ‘Head of Stone’, the first track to be lifted from their debut album ‘Space’ coming this October.
Taking their name from an Elliot Smith album and based in Antwerp and Ghent, Newmoon formed in late 2013 and released their debut EP on Touché Amoré’s label Secret Voice/Deathwish Inc. The band members previously played in the much-loved hardcore punk band Midnight Souls. Though the two projects may superficially appear polar opposites, hardcore is nothing if not a genre built purely on dynamics, something this quintet have a masterful grasp of.
Having toured with bands all over Europe, such as Touché Amoré, Basement, Nothing and Cloakroom, to name a few, Newmoon return with ‘Head of Stone’, a song written on a Japanese bullet train, speeding between Tokyo and Kyoto. It’s an ode to how lost we become when traveling foreign lands with language barriers explains singer/guitarist Bert Cannaerts:“I realised that there's something very frightening about being in a place where you are unable to connect to people in any way. You cannot understand the language they are speaking; you can't understand any visual cues. This can make you feel isolated and invisible. The same thing can happen with emotional relationships. They get to a point where people become unable to communicate, and emotions and nuances are lost. This leads to isolation and resentment and people go their separate ways.”
Separating this band though will take some serious thought, as they come built with strong DIY punk ethic and have been friends since their mid-teens. All band members have matching tattoos, cite the likes The Jesus & Mary Chain, Slowdive, The Ramones, Oasis and Sunn o))) as influences and to them, everything is new, and this is the start of it.
Newmoon are: Bert Cannaerts (vocals/guitar), Giel Torfs (guitar/backing vocals), Philippe Corthout (guitar), Robby Geybels (bass) and Stef Gouwkens (drums).
'Moloch' is the fourth and most epic album by the German ritual ambient project Vortex. Combining droning ambience, pounding percussive outbreaks and noisier elements they’ve crafted an apocalyptic soundtrack for urban decay.
'Moloch' means 'king' and is originally the name of an Ammonite god who was worshipped by the Phoenicians, the Canaanites and some North African cultures by sacrificing their own children to him. In later ages 'Moloch' has become a metaphor for an entity demanding a very costly sacrifice...Marcus Stiglegger says about the album’s inspiration; “In 2013 I visited New York City to see what was left of the unique mood i came to appreciate from the inspiring, New York based american cinema of the late 1970s. While visiting the shooting locations of films like Cruising, Taxi Driver, Wolfen, French Connection, Mean Streets, Maniac, and many more, I had a lot of strange encounters in the city streets. I continually felt absorbed by this Moloch of a metropolis which made me one of its demons - a hunter with a camera lens. This album and its artwork is the result of this intense and sometimes frightening episode in my life.'
For the recording of this dark and impressively cinematic album, Stiglegger joined musical forces with Bergemann (Mink M. Ra), MARS & The Trail, Christoph Wirth and Patrick Kilian of Dvrtal and Rome Asleep. Besides field recordings the music was composed based on acoustic instruments like guitar, strings, flutes, jaw harp, various percussions and voices, joined by elaborate keyboard compositions.
