Archives: June 2023

Brooklyn 5-piece Geese have shared new single “I See Myself,” and accompanying music video from their sophomore album 3D Country, out now (Friday – June 23) via Partisan Records/Play It Again Sam. “I See Myself” is the breezy, soulful, and strange track with a groove inspired by Funkadelic classics like “Nappy Dugout” and “Hit It and Quit It.” It finds the Brooklyn 5-piece at perhaps their most heartfelt, even bordering on a love song, despite a post-prog breakdown before the last chorus.

Geese frontman Cameron Winter explains: “‘I See Myself’ was one of the last songs we pulled together for the album. I was inspired by my favorite Funkadelic songs, which are dead simple and have big choruses with beautiful backing vocals, so this was our version of something like that. This might be Geese’s first proper love song. Seeing your humanity reflected back in someone else is one of the most pure kinds of connections that exist, to me. But I think there’s a lyrical darkness to the song too, about wanting to save someone you love from something evil and unstoppable.”

Geese will hit the road on their biggest-ever North American headline tour – DATES HERE

Los Angeles indie rock band, Allah-Las, have announced the release of their fifth studio album Zuma 85 and shared two new songs from it called “The Stuff” and title track “Zuma 85.” Zuma 85, which was co-produced by Jeremy Harris, is due out October 13th via the band’s own label, Calico Discos in partnership with Innovative Leisure. The band have also announced some summer and fall tour dates. Listen to the songs below, followed by the album’s tracklist and cover artwork, as well as the upcoming tour dates.

Allah-Las, mostly known for their surf rock washes with folk rock touches, find themselves leaving familiar territory with the making of Zuma 85. Heavily influenced by late-era Lou Reed and John Cale, Peter Ivers, and early Brian Eno, the band reconvened post-pandemic with sketches, ideas, and riffs. The songs were crafted in three sessions, and were then mixed by Jarvis Taveniere of Woods. The band features Matthew Correia (drums/vocals), Spencer Dunham (bass, guitar, vocals), Miles Michaud (guitar, organ, vocals), and Pedrum Siadatian (guitar, synth, vocals).

Corinne Bailey Rae trades in her subdued, heart-on-her-sleeve balladry for raucous, rebellious chanting as she tells the story of a savvy young woman who knows her way around the Big Apple. The lyrics here are much simpler (the majority of the just-under-two-minute song is just Corinne chanting the song’s title amid hand claps, chaotic drums and buzz-sawing electric guitars). The idea of the song is still there, especially as the singer praises the song’s subject by calling her a “heroine.”

Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Corinne Bailey Rae confirms her years-in-the-making Black Rainbows project. Inspired by the objects and artworks collected by Theaster Gates at the Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago, the work of songs, a book Refraction/Reflection of the Arts Bank photographed by Koto Bolofo, live performances, visuals, lectures and exhibitions—a bold move from her previous work.

The album Black Rainbows is set for release September 15th via Thirty Tigers. The first single, “New York Transit Queen,” is out now. In celebration of the new project, Bailey Rae is taking her live show to select U.S. cities this fall including Yale University’s Schwarzman Center, New York’s National Jazz Museum in Harlem,

“I knew when I walked through those doors that my life had changed forever,” says Bailey Rae. “Engaging with these archives and encountering Theaster Gates and his practice has changed how I think about myself as an artist and what the possibilities of my work can be. This music has come through seeing. Seeing has been like hearing, for me. While I was looking, songs/sounds appeared.”

Wide ranging in its themes, Black Rainbows’ subjects are drawn from encounters with objects in the Arts Bank, a curated collection of Black archives comprising books, sculpture, records, furniture and problematic objects from America’s past. From the rock hewn churches of Ethiopia to
the journeys of Black Pioneers westward, from Miss New York Transit 1957 to how the sunset appears from Harriet Jacobs’ loophole. Black Rainbows explores Black femininity, Spell Work, Inner Space/Outer Space, time collapse, ancestors and music as a vessel for transcendence.

FULL US TOUR DATES –> HERE

On ANIMALS, his Warp Records debut, Kassa Overall pushes his kaleidoscopic, subversive vision further. He layers Roland 808s against avant-garde drumming in the vein of his mentors Elvin Jones and Billy Hart, the latter of whom he studied with at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Virtuoso muses appear alongside rap poets, including Danny Brown, Wiki, Lil B, and Shabazz Palaces. Top-flight jazz improvisation weaves in and out of orchestral string arrangements by Jherek Bischoff. The album’s diverse, all-star roster of collaborators includes several of his close friends, like vocalists Nick Hakim, Laura Mvula, Francis and the Lights, and jazz stars like Theo Croker and Vijay Iyer.

Kassa Overall is a Grammy-nominated musician, emcee, singer, producer and drummer who melds avant-garde experimentation with hip-hop production techniques to tilt the nexus of jazz and rap in unmapped directions. ANIMALS pushes Kassa’s message further too, the title a loaded metaphor for the paradoxes of his life as an entertainer and as a black man in America. ANIMALS is the sound of an artist aware of the cost of embodying one’s natural self in the public eye, a deep reckoning with the two sided truth that to perform ones freedom for an audience can mean succumbing to life inside a cage

KASSA OVERALL ON TOUR –> DATES HERE!

Fontaines D.C.’s vocalist Grian Chatten made his debut solo appearance on Later…With Jools Holland last night (June 17) – check out footage Above!

Chatten released his first solo single ‘The Score’ in April and took to Jools Holland on Saturday night to perform follow-up track ‘Fairlies’.

“I wrote ‘Fairlies’ in intense heat,” Chatten explained at the time. “Partly in Jerez, Spain, partly in LA a couple of days before a Fontaines D.C. tour kicked off. It was a quick write, and I believe I celebrated each line with a beer.”

Chatten is set to release his debut solo album ‘Chaos For The Fly’ on June 30. The album is co-produced by Dan Carey, who has helmed all three of Fontaines D.C.’s albums to date.

In August, Fontaines D.C. will head out on the road to support Arctic Monkeys on their 2023 North American tour. According to guitarist Carlos O’Connell, the band are planning to “go back into the mindset of writing” after that run of shows.

Little Rock rapper Kari Faux has released REAL BTCHES DON’T DIE! via drink sum wtr.

The album was primarily produced by Kari’s partner Phoelix, with additional production credits from 2forwOyNE and Park Ave. It also features contributions by Big K.R.I.T., Jazz Cartier, Devin the Dude, TheMIND, Phoelix, and the late Gangsta Boo.

Kari says of the album: After years of subjecting myself to ‘industry standards’ and becoming completely depressed by them, I decided to go home, which was completely grounding. This album is my best work yet and it’s an homage to the loved ones I’ve lost, Southern rap and my ability to alchemize pain that would break some people. My friend and collaborator, TheMIND, convinced me to go to Chicago and work with him and Phoelix. Phoelix and I ultimately fell in love over the course of making this album and that love is in every fiber of this album.

REAL BTCHES DON’T DIE! features the singles “TURNIN’ HEADS (feat. Big K.R.I.T.)” and “ME FIRST,” and “MAKE A WISH” – which pairs Kari’s confident verses with a 2000s-throwback beat with chill snaps and echoing synths.

London-born singer-songwriter JGrrey pulled up to Boiler Room London’s studio for a special performance of single ‘BOYS?’ – WATCH BELOW!