HAYLEY AND THE CRUSHERS' AnnounceModern Adult Kicks The
Band's Third Album Conjures Up the Elation Of First-Car Freedom, the
Melancholy of Suburban Isolation and the Fluorescent Euphoria of Y2K
Chat Rooms Out September 13 via Kitten Robot Records Foreboding Punky, Power Pop “Taboo” Out Now Tour Kicks Off September 23
Just ahead of her highly-awaited new album PRE PLEASURE,Australia’s Julia Jacklin shares a latest taste of the forthcoming album with new single, “Be Careful With Yourself.”PRE PLEASUREarrives this Friday, August 26 on Polyvinyl Record Co.
Driving
guitars usher you into the hazy, dreamlike soundscape of “Be Careful
With Yourself,” while Jacklin’s effortless vocals cut through rhythmic
drums and airy harmonies. Equal parts honest and vulnerable, “Be Careful
With Yourself” is a cathartic release and a love song for the ages.
Photo Credit: Izzie Austin
“Be
Careful With Yourself” follows fan favorites, "Love, Try Not To Let
Go,” “I Was Neon,” and “Lydia Wears A Cross,” which received a wave of
love on release globally, reviewed by the likes of Pitchfork, The New
York Times, Stereogum, NME and NPR Music, with media and fans all
welcoming the return of Jacklin and news of her third album release. “I
Was Neon” also received serious radio acclaim, with the track being
added to full rotation on triple j and international support from BBC
Radio 6, BBC Radio 1, SiriusXMU, KEXP and KCRW.
Since releasing her debut album Don’t Let the Kids Win in
2016, the Melbourne-via-Blue Mountains singer-songwriter has carved out
a fearsome reputation as a direct lyricist, willing to excavate the
parameters of intimacy and agency in songs both stark and raw, loose,
and playful. If her folky debut announced those intentions, and the
startling 2019 follow-up Crushing drew in listeners uncomfortably close, PRE PLEASURE is the sound of Jacklin gently loosening her grip.
The
new album, Jacklin’s third, is a masterclass in songwriting and cements
her status as one of the most important songwriters of our time. PRE PLEASURE was conceived upon returning home from a mammoth Crushing world
tour, and finished in a frantic few months of recording in Montreal
with co-producer Marcus Paquin (The Weather Station, The National). The
10-track offering sees Jacklin once again putting intensely personal
thoughts and feelings to paper whilst expanding on her signature sound;
and, at the same time, attempting to inject some joy back into the
process.
“Once music becomes your job, you can lose the purity of music fandom. I
spent the last two years trying to reconnect with that. I didn’t play
much, I just listened. Especially to a lot of big pop music like Celine
Dion, Robyn and Luther Vandross – music that wasn’t so heavy, big
feelings, big production. You lose sight of what putting on a big,
beautiful song can do.”
PRE
PLEASURE reflects this source inspiration and showcase Jacklin’s
willingness to explore new terrain as both a producer and songwriter,
once again presenting her most authentic and genuine self and
translating it into deeply personal, timeless songs.
Jacklin
is due to tour the US, UK and Europe from August this year. The tour
will span several months and see her perform at her biggest venues to
date, including iconic rooms like the 3000-capacity Roundhouse in
London, and 1800-capacity Brooklyn Steel in New York.
“‘I
Was Neon’ has the feeling of an unrestricted exhale…Jacklin revels in
both appreciation and apprehension of the most vibrant version of
herself.–NPR
“Julia
Jacklin’s music is a gradual accumulation of small, sharp lyrical
details, and “Lydia Wears a Cross” is full of them. The arrangement is
sparse – drum machine, echoing stabs of piano – to spotlight Jacklin’s
storytelling.” – THE NEW YORK TIMES
“Lydia
Wears A Cross” is a slow-building number. It starts with Jacklin
singing over a rickety drum-machine, but by the time it’s over, we get
strings and synths and drums coming in from every angle. – STEREOGUM
“Rather
than disavowing her much more eager young self with “Lydia Wears a
Cross,” Jacklin takes a loving approach, clarifying her primary-school
perspective with the wisdom of growing up.” – PITCHFORK
“Lydia
Wears A Cross” is a simmering slow-build of a track that crescendos to a
swirling vortex of muted tones, a reckoning with childhood memories
that’s patient and painstakingly crafted. – PAPER
“Lydia
Wears a Cross” could have been a daunting lead single, but Jacklin
steps with an impressive lightness across a rolling indie-pop
arrangement. – BILLBOARD
“Here
[‘I Was Neon’] she puts the pedal to the floor with a few chugging
power chords and a hypnotic refrain…The simple, repetitive structure
makes this song the perfect festival set closer.” – THE GUARDIAN
"Be Careful With Yourself" is a catchy song with powerful lyric's and chalk filled with gritty guitar chords - Music Film Fashion Blog
More About Julia Jacklin
Both of Jacklin’s aforementioned albums Don’t Let The Kids Win and Crushing, resonated strongly across the globe on release. Crushing debuted
into the Top 10 of the ARIA Album Chart and was included in more than
20 Best of Lists for 2019 Albums including Pitchfork, Uncut, the New
York Times, Junkee, i-D, Rolling Stone and The Guardian. It was also
nominated for 6 ARIA Awards and won the AIR Award for ‘Best Independent
Blues & Roots Album’ in 2020, as well a US Independent Music
(Libera) Award for ‘Best Folk & Bluegrass Album’.
Jacklin’s
songs have received widespread radio play from triple j, FBi and
community radio locally, plus BBC1, BBC 6 and Sirius XMU
globally. Support from DSPs is also strong; Jacklin has over 150 million
streams to her name to date.
US Tour Dates:
08/26 - Stanford, CA @ Frost Amphitheater - Here and There Festival
08/27 - Pasadena, CA @ This Ain’t No Picnic Festival
09/09 - Austin, TX @ Mohawk #
09/10 - Dallas, TX @ The Studio at The Factory #
09/12 - Nashville, TN @ The Basement East #
09/13 - Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West #
09/15 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club #
09/16 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel #
09/17 - Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts #
09/18 - Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club #
09/20 - Montreal, QC @ Corona Theatre $
09/21 - Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre $
09/22 - Grand Rapids, MI @ Calvin University $
09/23 - Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall $
09/24 - Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line $
09/26 - Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater $
09/27 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge $
09/29 - Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom $
09/30 - Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile $
10/01 - Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile (SOLO) $
10/02 - Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall $
10/04 - San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore $
10/05 - Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Tavern $
10/07 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theatre $
10/08 - Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom $
# w/ Kara Jackson
$ w/ Katy Kirby
UK & European Tour Dates:
11/03 - Dublin, Ireland @ Vicar Street &
11/05 - Glasgow, Scotland @ SWG3 TV Studio &
11/06 - Manchester, UK @ The Ritz &
11/07 - Birmingham, UK @ The Mill &
11/09 - Bristol, UK @ SWX &
11/10 - Brighton, UK @ Chalk &
11/11 - London, UK @ Roundhouse &
11/13 - Paris, France @ La Maroquinerie &
11/14 - Antwerp, Belgium @ Trix Club &
11/15 - Cologne, Germany @ Club Bahnhof Ehrenfeld &
Brooklyn-based artist and songwriter Elijah Wolf released a new single “Holding This In.” The song was co-written by Josh Jaeger and continues his creative partnership with producer Sam Cohen who produced his 2021 single “Yesterday, With You” and full length album Brighter Lighting.
Photo Credit: Eleanor Petry | download high-res here
Alvvays
returned in a blaze of musical glory last month, delighting fans around
the world and reminding everyone why they are one of the most exciting
bands of right now. Blue Rev which will be released via Polyvinyl on October 7th.
Now the band are giving another taste of their exciting new album with another song “Easy On Your Own?”
At least the five-year wait was worthwhile: Blue Rev
doesn’t simply reassert what’s always been great about Alvvays but
instead reimagines it. There are 14 songs on Blue Rev, making it not
only the longest Alvvays album but also the most harmonically rich and
lyrically provocative.
Alvvays will be touring North America this fall to celebrate Blue Rev giving fans a much needed cathodic release. All dates are listed below.
First single “Pharmacist” is a masterclass in indie rock…
"...a distinct emotional undertow, like a stirring dream that ends a little too soon" - The New York Times
“Pharmacist”
is overblown in all the right ways, with all the meticulously layered
noise growing into a thicket around Rankin’s tender nostalgia." - Pitchfork
"First
single and album opener “Pharmacist” might as well be the Big Bang,
exploding outward to form the beginnings of a new era of Alvvays." - Stereogum
"The
always-incredible Alvvays have returned after five long years with
“Pharmacist" — a gloriously fuzzed-out blast of energy that spells good
things for the band’s third album, Blue Rev. Drawing from the
high-energy, “Lollipop”/”Hey”/”Saved By A Waif” side of the band’s
catalog, it’s a very welcome, and pleasingly unexpected, comeback." -
Paper
"complete
with a frenetic and exciting guitar solo to cap off what can only be
described as a fantastic set-up for this long-awaited album cycle" - Uproxx
"From the sound of its jangly lead single, “Pharmacist,” it’s already looking to be a brilliant new page for the band" - Nylon
More on Blue Rev…
Alvvays never intended to take five years to finish their third album, the nervy joyride that is the compulsively lovable Blue Rev. In fact, the band began writing and cutting its first bits soon after releasing 2017’s Antisocialites,
that stunning sophomore record that confirmed the Toronto quintet’s
status atop a new generation of winning and whip-smart indie rock.
Global
lockdowns notwithstanding, circumstances both ordinary and entirely
unpredictable stunted those sessions. Alvvays toured more than expected,
a surefire interruption for a band that doesn’t write on the road. A
watchful thief then broke into singer Molly Rankin’s apartment and
swiped a recorder full of demos, one day before a basement flood nearly
ruined all the band’s gear. They subsequently lost a rhythm section and,
due to border closures, couldn’t rehearse for months with their
masterful new one, drummer Sheridan Riley and bassist Abbey Blackwell.
The songs of Blue Rev
thrive on immediacy and intricacy, so good on first listen that the
subsequent spins where you hear all the details are an inevitability.
This perfectly dovetailed sound stems from an unorthodox—and, for
Alvvays, wholly surprising—recording process, unlike anything they’ve
ever done. Alvvays are fans of fastidious demos, making maps of new
tunes so complete they might as well have topographical contour lines.
But
in October 2021, when they arrived at a Los Angeles studio with fellow
Canadian Shawn Everett, he urged them to forget the careful planning
they’d done and just play the stuff, straight to tape. On the second
day, they ripped through Blue Rev front-to-back
twice, pausing only 15 seconds between songs and only 30 minutes
between full album takes. And then, as Everett has done on recent albums
by The War on Drugs and Kacey Musgraves, he spent an obsessive amount
of time alongside Alvvays filling in the cracks, roughing up the
surfaces, and mixing the
results.
Every
element of Alvvays leveled up in the long interim between albums: Riley
is a classic dynamo of a drummer, with the power of a rock deity and
the finesse of a jazz pedigree. Their roommate, in-demand bassist
Blackwell, finds the center of a song and entrenches it. Keyboardist
Kerri MacLellan joined Rankin and guitarist Alec O’Hanley to write more
this time, reinforcing the band’s collective quest to break patterns
heard on their first two albums.
Alvvays’
self-titled debut, released when much of the band was still in its
early 20s, offered speculation about a distant future—marriage,
professionalism, interplanetary citizenship. Antisocialites
wrestled with the woes of the now, especially the anxieties of inching
toward adulthood. Named for the sugary alcoholic beverage Rankin and
MacLellan used to drink as teens on rural Cape Breton, Blue Rev
looks both back at that country past and forward at an uncertain world,
reckoning with what we lose whenever we make a choice about what we
want to become.
Sure,
it arrives a few years later than expected, but the answer for Alvvays
is actually simple: They’ve changed gradually, growing on Blue Rev into one of their generation’s most complete and riveting rock bands.
2022 Tour Dates:
08/16 - Chicago, IL @ Here and There Festival - The Salt Shed
09/19 - Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheater #
10/14 - Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theatre $
10/15 - Minneapolis, MN @ First Ave. $
10/18 - Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot $
10/19 - Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory $
10/20 - Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom $
10/21 - Eugene, OR @ McDonald Theatre $
10/22 - Seattle, WA @ The Moore Theatre $
10/24 - Arcata, CA @ Arcata Theatre Lounge $
10/26 - San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore $
10/27 - San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore $
10/29 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern $
10/30 - San Diego, CA @ Observatory North Park $
11/02 - Austin, TX @ Stubb's Waller Creek Amphitheater $
11/04 - Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall - Downstairs $
11/05 - Dallas, TX @ The Studio at The Factory $
11/07 - Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse $
11/08 - Nashville, TN @ Marathon Music Works $
11/09 - Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel $
11/11 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club $ [SOLD OUT]
11/12 - Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall $
11/15 - New Haven, CT @ College Street Music Hall $
Courtney Barnett’s Here and There
festival is officially underway with the first shows featuring the
masterful Quinn Christopherson and the always incredible Lucy Dacus. Also
joining Barnett at various points on the line-up will be Alvvays, Arooj
Aftab, Bartees Strange, Bedouine, Caroline Rose, Chicano Batman, Ethel
Cain, Faye Webster, Fred Armisen, Hana Vu, Indigo De Souza, Japanese
Breakfast, Julia Jacklin, Leith Ross, Men I Trust, Sleater-Kinney, Snail
Mail, The Beths, They Hate Change, Waxahatchee, and Wet Leg. A full
city-by-city summary can be found below.
To
celebrate the incredible coming together of these wonderful artists,
Barnett is releasing a very rare and limited edition run of 600 cassette
tapes where all funds raised will go to the National Network of
Abortion Funds and Advocates for Youth. Pre-order here and stream Courtney Barnett’s “If I Don’t Hear From You Tonight (Demo).”
Here And There: B-Sides, Live Tracks + Demos Tracklisting:
SIDE 1
1 - Julia Jacklin – Vegas Wedding (Demo)
2 – Bedouine – Wasn’t Me (Live)
3 - The Beths – Keep The Distance (Demo)
4 - Faye Webster – Come To Atlanta (Live from Chase Park Transduction)
6 – Courtney Barnett – If I Don’t Hear From You Tonight (Demo)
7 - Caroline Rose – Soma (Demo)
8 - Hana Vu – Maker (Live From The Parking Lot Sessions)
About National Network of Abortion Funds (Website)
The
National Network Of Abortion funds builds power with members to remove
financial and logistical barriers to abortion access by centering people
who hhave abortions and organizing at the intersections of racial,
economic, and reproductive justice.
Advocates
for Youth works alongside thousands of young people here in the U.S.
and around the globe as they fight for sexual health, rights, and
justice.
More on ‘Here And There’
When
Courtney Barnett first started playing shows she drove vast distances
through the Australian bushland and desert, passing occasionally through
small towns and stopping at gas-stations and fast-food outlets.
Eventually she’d arrive at one of Australia’s sprawling cities, unpack
the car, and sing. She wrote a lot of songs about those experiences,
some which appear on her early EPs and debut album. Songs like Dead Fox,
Scotty Says and Out Of the Woodwork.
After
the success of her early EPs in Australia, Barnett shifted focus to
playing shows in North America and Europe. Each place was new to her,
without an identity formed by personal experience. She was here, then a
few days later she’d be there. Destinations in those days were just
names on a map. But over the past decade these nameless and faceless
places revealed themselves to be the beloved homes of communities,
venues, theaters and amphitheaters with thriving musical cultures and
incredible audiences.
‘Here
And There’ is a concept partially born of Barnett’s love of curation.
Barnett has owned a label (Milk! Records) for a decade now - releasing
the music of artists from her home town of Melbourne, Australia as well a
few brilliant US-based friends she’s made along the way
(Sleater-Kinney, Chastity Belt, Hand Habits amongst others), leveraging
her deep connection with her audience to champion the music of others
that she admires.
Here
And There is also a fresh take on touring, inspired by a couple of
life-changing events where Courtney was invited to host and curate. The
first, a festival named Sonic City in Belgium back in 2019, where Barnett was asked to curate a line-up over two days.
“Curating
Sonic City was such a joy. I watched some incredible music that day.
Sasami, Hachiku, Joan As Policewoman, Beverly Glenn-Copeland and so much
more. I was completely mesmerized, I remember looking around the room
and wondering how it could have possibly all come together so perfectly.
I’m so thankful to the Sonic City crew for giving me that opportunity.”
The second, a special event
on Valentines Day 2020 where Barnett hosted an event for the Newport
Folk Foundation. That Valentine's Day special saw Courtney act as
musical director, curator and performer along with some of today's
leading folk and indie artists.
“That
Valentines Day show happened in the middle of a musical epiphany for
me. It pushed me just outside my technical comfort zone and left me
feeling so inspired. I especially adored the collaboration of that show,
it felt like one big house band swapping songs and stories. It was such
an honour to share the stage with those musicians and artists that I
admire.
I
was on such a high afterwards, dreaming of taking that show on the
road, and then Covid halted all plans for two years. I bought a record
player during isolation and spent endless hours listening to music, I
think I really fell in love with music again.”
