That time Brion Gysin performed "Stop Smoking" in Paris, 1983

Watch Brion Gysin perform "Stop Smoking" with Ramuntcho Matta and Fred Cousseau at Theatre de la Bastille in 1983. 

Remembering David McComb of The Triffids on his birthday

Remembering Perth singer/songwriter David McComb with a documentary trailer, a few clips and a tribute show in Belgium. 

METZ roars back with Up On Gravity Hill album out April 12

METZ enlisted Owen Pallett and Black Mountain's Amber Webber to realize their long awaited new album, Up On Gravity Hill. 

Here's the scoop from Sub Pop HQ...

On April 12th, METZ will release Up On Gravity Hill, their first album in 4 years, on Sub Pop for the world and in Canada on Dine Alone. The album was engineered by Seth Manchester (Mdou Moctar, Lingua Ignota, Battles, The Body) and features guest performances from Amber Webber of Black Mountain and composer/string arranger Owen Pallett.

METZ, a band once known for blowing out eardrums with songs of joyous rage, have, over their past few records, begun exploring ways to turn abrasiveness into atmospherics, the evolution of their sound not only a reflection of the maturing of the band themselves but also of a changed world that demands nuance and compassion to comprehend and to survive. This is so on their latest effort, Up On Gravity Hill, which finds the band continuing to bend the raw power of rock music to its most delicate, intricate ends. Delivering a deep, detailed, and unyieldingly personal collection of songs that are fused together to form not only METZ’s most powerful record to date but also their most beautiful.

To spotlight this evolution, the band has shared two new contrasting singles: the stomping motorik “99,” and the charging and deeply melodic, “Entwined (Street Light Buzz)”, that offers a dreamier Swervedriver-esque guitar sheen never before utilized by the Canadian trio. 

 METZ frontman Alex Edkins says, “These two songs couldn’t be more stylistically and thematically dissimilar. ‘Entwined (Street Light Buzz)’ is a song about the deep connection humans can foster with one another and how we carry people with us forever, even after death. ‘99’ is about the scourge of corporate greed and bottom-line thinking that runs rampant in modern society. Anything for a buck is the message being sent to younger generations.”

 METZ is also announcing headlining international tour dates supporting Up On Gravity Hill, with dates in North America from April 17th to May 17th, when they'll play a triumphant Toronto show at the Danforth Music Hall. Then it's off for a run of UK and EU festival performances in August, including stops at The Green Man Festival in the UK, La Route Du Rock and Cabaret Vert Festival in France, and the Canela Party in Spain followed by a UK and EU tour in the fall.  

Pre-order a copy of METZ's Up On Gravity Hill album from Sub Pop right here. Listen to "Entwined (Street Light Buzz)" and "99" below. 

Remembering Sonny Bono on his birthday

Beyond Sonny & Cher, Sonny Bono co-wrote a few impressive tunes for the Stones, Searchers and himself. 

Bloodshot Bill and King Khan celebrate bacon on new Tandoori Knights album

Listen to "Bacon Is Too Good" off the new Tandoori Knights album 14 Hits That Don't Quit on Dayton's Rad Girlfriend Records. 

One For The Weekend: IDLES

Watch IDLES perform "Gift Horse" off their Nigel Godrich-produced TANGK album out today via Partisan Records. 

Here's the scoop on TANGK...

TANGK is the righteous and vibrant fifth album from madcap truth-seekers, IDLES. Pronounced “tank” with a whiff of the “g” - an onomatopoeic reference to the lashing way the band imagined their guitars sounding that has since grown into a sigil for living in love-the record is the band’s most ambitious and striking work yet. Where IDLES were once set on taking the world’s piss, squaring off with strong jaws against the perennially entitled, and exercising personal trauma in real time, they have arrived in this new act to offer the fruits of such perseverance: love, joy, and indeed gratitude for the mere opportunity of existence.

A radical sense of defiant empowerment radiates from TANGK, co-produced by Nigel Godrich, IDLES guitarist Mark Bowen, and Kenny Beats. Despite his reputation as an incendiary post-punk spark plug, frontman Joe Talbot sings almost all the feelings inside these 10 songs with hard-earned soul, offering each lusty vow or solidarity plea as a bona fide pop song—that is, a thing for everyone to pass around and share, communal anthems intended for overcoming our grievance. 

Lead single “Dancer” stands as the throbbing and scuzzy highlight at the album’scenter-rattling bass and ricocheting guitar giving Talbot space to talk about sweat and sex on the dancefloor. (You will spy LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy and Nancy Whang here, too, singing.) It is lascivious and playful and positive, the ecstatic sound of at least a temporary fix. In the improvised hook, Talbot offers IDLES’ essential new mantra: “I give myself to you/As long as you move on the floor.” He is singing about the rapture of a new relationship, but he is also singing about the special dynamic between IDLES and their fans, or IDLES and the world at large.

This is a band’s vow to keep lifting and fighting for themselves and their listeners, to keep offering the grim persistence of joy and hope and love and wonder as long as that’s what anyone needs to survive. It is a love song the same way that TANGK is a love album—open to anyone who requires something to shout out loud in order to fend off any encroaching sense of the void, now or forever.

Get a copy of IDLES' album TANGK directly from Partisan Records right here.  IDLES play Toronto's Coca-Cola Coliseum (formerly 'CNE Coliseum' aka the Cow Palace) at Exhibition Place on Sept. 20th. Get tickets and check the rest of their tour dates right here. Watch IDLES perform "Gift Horse" on The Tonight Show below. 

 

Charlie Parr previews Tucker Martine-produced album Little Sun with "Portland Avenue"

The song "Portland Avenue" is off Charlie Parr's forthcoming Little Sun album out March 22 via Smithsonian Folkways Records.

Here's the scoop on "Portland Avenue"...

The song tells the story of a missing neighbor in a tune that's at once uptempo, ambulatory, and familiar. An anthem of care and community, "Portland Avenue" asks us, as Parr writes in his liner notes, to "lend support and care like we used to lend cups of sugar."

Over the last couple of decades, Charlie Parr has crisscrossed the world on tour more times than one can count. He also has released over a dozen albums of his songs, acclaimed for their poetic simplicity.  Little Sun, his most ambitious album to date, was recorded with Tucker Martine (The Decemberists, Sufjan Stevens, My Morning Jacket) and features Parr augmenting his raw and affecting songs with stunning full-band arrangements. The remarkable backing band here includes Marisa Anderson, Victor Krummenacher, Andrew Borger, and Asher Fulero. Masterfully channeling the philosophical and transcendental qualities of the blues, Parr takes us on a journey through the winding streets of his imagination.   

You can pre-order Charlie Parr's new album Little Sun via Bandcamp right here.  Check out "Portland Avenue" below. For more information about Charlie Parr's recordings and upcoming shows, visit his site: http://www.charlieparr.com