6/30/2021

POND Releases New Album Track + Video "Toast"

POND 
SHARES NEW ALBUM TRACK + VIDEO
“ TOAST”

NEW STUDIO ALBUM OUT OCTOBER 1, 2021

PERFORMING PRIMAVERA SOUND 2022 & SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS XR
photo credit: Matsu

Announced to perform at Primavera Sound in 2022 and set to take the screen at Splendour in Grass XR next month, today Pond reveals album song “Toast,” alongside a heavenly lyric video. The blissed out track will feature on the Fremantle five-piece’s ninth studio album 9available October 1 via Spinning Top Records.   

Lyrically, “Toast” addresses last year’s bush fires in Australia and the appalling wealth divide in frontman Nick Allbrook’s childhood home in Western Australia. “The intro chords came from a Joe Ryan demo mysteriously titled Toast. I’ve never asked Joe why he landed on that name, and I probably never will, but it pointed toward the image of fat-headed gobblers touching flutes of bubbles, watching the End of Days gallop over the horizon. I often wonder about those people - the money hoarders, climate change deniers, earth-pilferers and adventure capitalists - are they nihilists or anarchists or do they really believe they are to be saved by some Rock Opera Jesus? We may never know, but here is ‘Toast,’ which is hopefully as smooth as the smooth, smooth sailing of our glorious leaders fat old white lives,” says Allbrook of the track. 

Directed and edited by Pond and Alex Haygarth, dine in the sky on the karaoke style clip for “Toast.” “We filmed the clip on a green screen in an abandoned garden centre in one continuous take. It cost us $300 to make (the price of four takes worth of champagne). I ate five fried eggs over the course of it. Another instalment in a long series of homemade Pond videos,” says Jay Watson of the video.  
Pond - Toast (Official Video)
Featuring new single “America’s Cup” and lead track “Pink Lunettes,” on 9, Pond recaptures an anarchic sense of uncertainty and fly closer than ever before to the creative supernova that has blazed across so much of the band’s music.   

“We sort of gave ourselves permission to make something stuffed this time. We'd settled into a pretty tight routine with the last few albums and wanted to shake a boat with this so we started off with filling a few tape reels with some absolutely heinous improvised sonic babble which, after much sifting, became the first few songs of the album. We also wanted to up the tempo. The last few albums have a neat little mantra or repetitive theme. If I was forced to find something like that in 9, I guess it would be ‘biography’ or ‘observation’ - a lot of the lyrics seem to focus on single people's lives, or the lives of small moments or small things when you zoom real close up and they reveal something deeper. Stuff like my cheap Chinese slippers, or a soiled teddy bear, or Agnes Martin (not to put them in the same category, although maybe Agnes would've appreciated it). In the Rorschach test of re-reading lyrics, one thing that sticks out is a fixation on leaving behind a time of golden optimism and uncynical abandon. We can't look at ourselves the same anymore, and the world we've built provides a scary lense for viewing our past,” muses Allbrook on the album. 

Produced by Pond and mixed by Jay Watson and James Ireland, on 9, Pond’s explorations are funnelled into electrifying bursts of pure psych-pop joy. No tune even veers past the five minute mark. Above all though, what you get from 9 is a sense of creative abandon and just plain fun. 9 is available for pre-order in digital formats as well as multiple colour options in 12” vinyl, CD and cassette via pondband.ffm.to/nine.


About Pond

Originally formed in the turn of the 2010’s, as “a Royal Trux-cum-Cream power trio,” fronted by Allbrook with Jay Watson and Joe Ryan, Pond added Jamie Terry shortly afterwards, with James Ireland later rounding out the irrepressible five-piece. Ever prolific, Pond boasts an impressive eight studio albums in their ever expanding repertoire. 2019 was a milestone year for the one-of-a-kind collective with the release of their most critically acclaimed album to date, Tasmania. The LP debuted at #15 on the ARIA album chart and #2 on the AIR independent chart.

Pond possesses an ever-expanding performance resumé, having toured with Arctic Monkeys, MGMT Flaming Lips. They have stunned at premiere musical festivals around the world including Glastonbury, Coachella, Primavera, Bonnaroo, Reading and Leeds, The Governors Ball, South by Southwest, St Jerome’s Laneway, Splendour in the Grass and more, and have sold out countless venues around the globe from New York’s Bowery Ballroom to Paris’ La Gaite Lyrique and London’s O2 Forum.


POND - TOUR DATES

Saturday, July 24 - Splendour in the Grass XR

Thursday, June 2 + Saturday, June 11 2022 | Primavera Sound, Barcelona 
SOLD OUT

MAGDALENA BAY Announce Debut Album & Share First Song / Video via The FADER

MAGDALENA BAY
ANNOUNCE DEBUT ALBUM & 
SHARE FIRST SINGLE “CHAERI” WITH A MUSIC VIDEO

Mercurial World out October 8th via Luminelle Recordings
Credit: Lissyelle Laricchia 
Early praise for Magdalena Bay:

“What sets Magdalena Bay apart is the gentleness of their lyrics and spacious, mood-building production.” - Pitchfork

“The band’s cyber-art aesthetic is stuffed with manic, homemade graphics that underscore the catchiness of its bubblegum-bright pop and hooky nineties-inspired sound.” - The New Yorker

“In addition to regularly dropping pop gems, Magdalena Bay have also established themselves as one of the music world’s smartest voices online.” - The FADER

“Magdalena Bay have been on an absolute tear this year...pure vintage pop.” - MTV

“Magdalena Bay's uplifting pop is what we need right now.” - i-D

“Magdalena Bay’s DIY approach to the arts is devilishly fascinating to watch.” - The Line of Best Fit

“Ideal listening if you'd like to feel like you're inside of a sparkly snow globe.” - Nylon
Today Los Angeles-based electro indie-pop duo Magdalena Bay—a.k.a. Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin—announce their long-awaited debut album. Entirely written, produced, performed, mixed and mastered by Magdalena Bay, Mercurial World will be released on October 8 via Luminelle. This album comes as a follow-up to their latest EP, A Little Rhythm and a Wicked Feeling, which was released on North America’s COVID-19 Eve, March 13, 2020. With their sold-out tours with Kero Kero Bonito and Yumi Zouma canceled, Magdalena Bay found a way to do the impossible: thrive in isolation, transcend the endless doom scroll, and capture people’s attention while they were stuck indoors. Over the past 18 months, the band used social platforms to organically build a dedicated following and dispatch their music in hypnotic, ephemeral bursts that met the moment. “We spend all of our time together, and in some ways Mercurial World is about that particular sense of madness in containment,” Lewin says. “We live together and make art together; this immerses you in our creative, insular universe.” The result is Mercurial World, a ridiculously good and otherworldly project that is as much musical as it is an experiment in pop persona and visual aesthetics.

Pre-order Mercurial World, out October 8 via Luminelle, HERE

To celebrate the announcement of Mercurial WorldMagdalena Bay share the album’s first single “Chaeri” alongside its music video. “Chaeri muses on mental health, friendship, loneliness and control. It’s about the walls we put up and the walls we should tear down for the sake of authentic connection, and Mica’s own personal difficulties with that,” the band explains of the track that finds Mica pleading for forgiveness while a soundscape so vast and thunderous threatens to consume her. “We tried taking these themes and elevating them to build a big, dark world with unsettling undertones.” The accompanying video is a new frontier for Magdalena Bay, with cinematic visuals that retain the surreal mood and VHS-obsessed nature of their DIY videos to date. From cult brochures mailed to unsuspecting fans and an immersive y2k-inspired websiteto easter-eggs scattered throughout videos, Magdalena Bay has engineered a rich visual world surrounding their debut album and this music video welcomes you to it. Listen to the song, watch the video and read more about the project now via THE FADER.
Magdalena Bay - Chaeri (Official Video)

Tracklisting
1. The End
 2. Mercurial World
 3. Dawning Of The Season
 4. Secrets (Your Fire)
 5. You Lose!
 6. Something For 2
 7. Chaeri
 8. Halfway
 9. Hysterical Us
10. Prophecy
11. Follow The Leader
12. Domino
13. Dreamcatching
14. The Beginning

Tour dates
10/8/21 - Los Angeles, CA | El Cid ^
10/12/21 - Boston, MA | The Sinclair *
10/13/21 - Brooklyn, NY | Elsewhere (Zone One) ^
10/14/21 - Philadelphia, PA | First Unitarian Church *
10/15/21 - Brooklyn, NY | Music Hall of Williamsburg * (SOLD OUT)
10/16/21 - Washington DC | Songbyrd * (SOLD OUT)
10/17/21 - Charlottesville, VA | The Southern *
10/19/21 - Carrboro, NC | Cat’s Cradle - Back Room * (SOLD OUT)
10/20/21 - Atlanta, GA | The Masquerade - Purgatory * (SOLD OUT)
10/24/21 - New Orleans, LA | Gasa Gasa #
10/27/21 - Dallas, TX | Deep Ellum Art Company #
10/28/21 - Houston, TX | The Satellite #
10/29/21 - Austin, TX | Levitation
10/30/21 - El Paso, TX | The Lowbrow Palace #
11/1/21 - Tucson, AZ | Club Congress #
11/2/21 - San Diego, CA | Soda Bar #
11/10/21 - Berkeley, CA | Cornerstone #
^ Headlining shows
* w/ George Clanton and Vitesse X
# w/ George Clanton and Negative Gemini (DJ Set)

SLOW PULP Shares New Single, Announces US Tour & Releases 7"

SLOW PULP
SHARE NEW SINGLE “IOWA” +
ANNOUNCE U.S. HEADLINE TOUR THIS FALL

Deleted Scenes 7” out Digitally Today 
& Physically 11/12 via Winspear
Photo Credit: Marie Renaud

Praise for Slow Pulp:

"The atmosphere around her — lush acoustic guitar, lightly brushed percussion and the lulling violin...provides a soft place to land [on ‘Falling Apart’]." - The New York Times

“dreamy, subtly forceful rock songs with great clarity and chemistry.” - NPR

"There's no shortage of young bands currently making gloomy-yet-glowing indie rock, but few are doing it better than Slow Pulp. On their forthcoming debut, Moveys, the Wisconsin group cast a wide net — encompassing dreary emo, dusky shoegaze, warm alt-country, and bristly folk — while still forging their own unique identity." - Entertainment Weekly

"...the record glows with an aura of serenity and weightlessness. It’s different from their past material; it’s more focused and cohesive. It’s naturally packed with inside jokes, eccentric sound effects, infectious indie rock riffs and sprawling folk ballads." - GRAMMY.com

“...tender and slyly powerful indie rock perfect when you're caught in your feelings.” - The FADER

“Slow Pulp’s Big Day is about formative experiences that transcend the calendar. It’s waking up not knowing what new experience will be enjoyed or what mistake will be made. It’s feeling something for the first time.” - Stereogum (Band To Watch)

"Chicago’s Slow Pulp is only just now releasing its debut album, three years into the band’s existence, but Moveys makes the case for being worth the wait. The band’s fusion of shoegaze, psychedelia, and Laurel Canyon-esque rock—all united by singer Emily Massey’s airy, ethereal vocals—creates a heady and intoxicating vibe of downtempo beauty. And when the group does kick up the intensity, on jangly indie-rock jams like “At It Again,” it proves equally adept, making for a record that can score late-night reflections and lazy Sunday afternoons alike without missing a beat." - The AV Club

"Jabs of crunchy guitar, sweeping psychedelia, or melodies that you don't see coming." – Pigeons & Planes

“At It Again” is a melodic shoegaze track that manages to take the shape of a pop song across its short runtime. If Moveys is as engaging as Slow Pulp’s 2019 EP Big Day, we are in for a treat when the rest of the album drops." - UPROXX 

"Common to all these songs is the confidence of a band who have leaned on each other through trouble and grown stronger for it, learning to better work together and making the most of their hard-won creative chemistry. Slow Pulp’s future is awash with possibilities, and that future is now." - Paste Magazine (8.1/10)

"the grungy, slow burning "Idaho”...is tempered by vocalist and guitarist Emily Massey's cooly commanding vocals." - Brooklyn Vegan

"Slow Pulp make a dreamy album for the year we can’t wake up from...prove the band have a hand-in-glove command of their sound." - Chicago Reader

Madison, WI-bred and Chicago-based band Slow Pulp - Emily Massey (vocals/guitar), Alexander Leeds (bass), Theodore Mathews (drums), and Henry Stoehr (guitar) - released their remarkable debut album Moveys in the Fall to critical acclaim from the likes of The New York Times, NPR, NYLON, AV ClubStereogum, and more. Recently they announced their new 7” entitled Deleted Scenes, which features two reimagined tracks from Moveys. Today they share the B-Side single “Iowa,” a hazy, fever-dream take on Moveys standout “Idaho.” Listen to “Iowa” HERE. Additionally, they are announcing a U.S. Fall tour where they will perform the tracks off of Moveys for the first time. Girl K, Mamalarky, and Strange Ranger will support, and tickets are on-sale now HERE

Deleted Scenes 7” is out today digitally, and will be available physically on 11/12 via Winspear. Download or stream it now HERE and pre-order vinyl HERE.
Slow Pulp - Iowa (Official Visualizer)
Tour Poster by Caleb Vanden Boom 
Tour Dates:
11/04/21 – Madison, WI @ Majestic Theater *
11/05/21 – Milwaukee, WI @ Colectivo *
11/06/21 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry *
11/09/21 – Denver, CO @ Globe Hall #
11/10/21 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court #
11/12/21 – Seattle, WA @ Barboza #
11/13/21 – Vancouver, BC @ The Biltmore #
11/14/21 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios #
11/16/21 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill #
11/18/21 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo #
11/19/21 – San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar #
11/20/21 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar #
11/22/21 – Austin, TX @ The Parish #
11/23/21 – Dallas, TX @ Ruins #
11/30/21 – Indianapolis, IN @ The Hi-Fi ^
12/01/21 – Columbus, OH @ Big Room Bar ^
12/03/21 – Nashville, TN @ The High Watt ^
12/04/21 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl ^
12/05/21 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat's Cradle ^
12/07/21 – Washington, DC @ Songbyrd ^
12/08/21 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda's ^
12/10/21 – Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere - Zone One ^
12/11/21 – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall ^
12/12/21 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground Sideroom ^
12/14/21 – Toronto, ON @ The Garrison ^
12/15/21 – Cleveland, OH @ Mahall's ^
12/16/21 – Detroit, MI @ El Club ^
12/17/21 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall*
 
* w/ Girl K 
 # w/ Mamalarky
^ w/ Strange Ranger 


Deleted Scenes Tracklisting:
2. Iowa


Follow Slow Pulp:

The Bloody Beetroots remix Crass for ‘Normal Never Was V’

Crass
 
The Feeding of the Five Thousand Remix Project
 
Remix singles ‘Normal Never Was V’ out August 6th via One Little Independent Records
Featuring The Bloody Beetroots and Commoners Choir
 
All proceeds going to Refuge
 
Stream ‘Banned from the Roxy (The Bloody Beetroots Remix)’ now
 
 
 

 
“The furiously political British anarchist collective Crass lived their dogma with admirable rigor” – Rolling Stone
 
“Arguably one of the most significant punk bands to ever exist” – Crack Magazine
 
As part of their ambitious ‘The Feeding of the Five Thousand Remix Project’, punk pioneers Crass are returning with another exclusive coloured 12” single featuring remixes by the masked Italian electronic producer Bob Rifo, aka The Bloody Beetroots, and Commoners Choir, the 70 strong community choir started by singer-songwriter-playwright-activist Boff Whalley. So far, the charity project has raised over £10,000 to help provide specialist support for women and children experiencing domestic violence.
 
In 2019 Crass took the step of making the original separate track stems of their seminal debut album ‘The Feeding of the Five Thousand’ available as a free download. With a call to take the original sixteen track recording in its pre-mix state, the intent was for people to create their own remixes and interpretations and breathe fresh life and ideas into this revolutionary music.
 
First released in 1978, ‘The Feeding of the Five Thousand’ pre-empted rap and grime in its hard-on-the-beat, fast fire, uncompromising lyrics and the iconic sounds and messages are ripe for reinterpretation. Crass encouraged people to rip apart the sound and ideas and create something new, then send the files to Crass Records for future releases and charitable projects. The message is DIY like it never was before. “Yours for the taking, yours for the making,” Crass said. “You do it, we’ll stew it. Mix it backwards, forwards and upside down. Turn up the heat and fix it with a downbeat, bring in the trumpets and let ‘em blow, let the piper call the tune to let us all know. It’s up to you to do what you like with it. The only limitation is your imagination.”
 
All monies raised from the project will go to the charity ‘Refuge’ who said; “We’re incredibly grateful to Crass and their team for helping raise vital funds for Refuge. Since the start of lockdown, Refuge has seen a 66% rise in demand for its Helpline, and a 950% rise in visits to its Helpline website. This shows the sheer extent of the need for specialist domestic abuse services – not just during lockdown but beyond. Every penny raised helps us to ensure that no woman or child is turned away from safety.
 
‘While lockdown itself doesn’t cause domestic abuse - abuse happens all year round - it does, of course, have the potential to aggravate pre-existing abusive behaviours – and the data we have shows us the increase in the need for our services during lockdown. Refuge worked incredibly hard at the beginning of the pandemic to make sure our services remained open and remained safe. The generous donations we have received, including those from Crass, mean we can continue to provide the life-saving and life-changing services that women experiencing domestic abuse need and deserve.”
 
Of the Commoners Choir remix Whalley (a lifelong Crass fan) tells us “Sometime last year I heard about the Crass Remix project and just felt that, well, the ‘fit’ was too perfect to miss. The invitation from Crass was to experiment with the mix, and we decided that turning G’s Song – a hurtling, full-throttle 37 second blast – into something choral and hauntingly melodic would echo the band’s strangeness, that challenging of preconceptions that had always appealed to me in the first place. G’s Song ends with the line ‘… and they’ve got no problem when you’re underground!’ which can be taken in two ways. Either it’s a gloomy fatalism that says we’re no trouble to the establishment/the system when we’re dead – or it’s a declaration of intent that we need to stop being politically underground and take our ideas into the world. I prefer the latter, obviously. The Crass/Commoners Choir remix leaves that final line to Steve Ignorant’s original strangled vocal. It’s a call to arms. For me the remix is a good marker of time and ideas, and a confirmation of how the best art can change our lives. Among the massed ranks of Commoners Choir there are quite a few whose lives as teenagers were impacted not just by Crass but by punk’s call for challenge, change and social justice; this remix is one way of connecting these threads of a lifetime (and having a ton of fun doing it).”
 
The Bloody Beetroots says "I wanted to guide the band into a new and unexplored territory.  It was really exciting bringing their sound into the current musical landscape."
 
About The Bloody Beetroots  
 
The Bloody Beetroots is the creation of Sir Bob Cornelius Rifo. Inspired by his lifelong love of punk rock and comic books, Rifo unleashed The Bloody Beetroots in late 2006 and has since crafted an intense sound that mixes his classical training, his punk rock obsession and his passion for electronic music into an edgy rock-meets-dance hybrid sound. The Bloody Beetroots first exploded on the scene via his 2009 critically acclaimed debut album ‘Romborama,’ featuring the iconic track ‘Warp 1.9.’ with Steve Aoki, both of which helped launch the American EDM boom at the end of the 2000s. His 2013 sophomore album, ‘Hide,’ featured crossover tracks with rock icons and alternative stars like Paul McCartney, Tommy Lee and others. Rifo’s third full-length album, ‘The Great Electronic Swindle’ in 2017, continued the electronic-rock narrative via collaborations with Perry Farrell, Jet, Gallows, Deap Vally and more. In 2019, The Bloody Beetroots released the ‘Heavy’ EP, which saw Rifo revisiting his classic electro style and features collaborations with Ephwurd and Dr. Fresch, in addition to three new solo originals. Via his boundary-pushing full live band shows and DJ sets, The Bloody Beetroots has performed at every major music festival around the world in addition to several headlining solo tours. A brand-new collaboration with Tom Morello called ‘The Catastrophists EP’ was released in June.
 
Follow The Bloody Beetroots
 
 
About Commoners Choir
 
Commoners Choir is a radical group dedicated to singing about the world around them, its inequalities and injustices, and their (4-part vocal harmony) opposition to oppression. The up to 70 members are also dedicated to reclaiming the fun in choir music as well as providing a social commentary, with inclusivity playing a big part in their manifesto. They’re based in West Yorkshire but travel to play in concert halls, at festivals, on demonstrations, on mountaintops, at cabarets, in churches, in galleries and museums – anywhere with an audience and a reason to sing.
 
Follow Commoners Choir 
 
 
Follow Crass
 

Newport Folk Festival Announces Stewardship Program, Names Nathaniel Rateliff As First Appointee

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