Yay finally, the Felt re-mastered re-issues from earlier this year finally made it to Spotify! I’d much rather have all the vinyls, of course, but I can’t really spare the 300 bucks, so Spotify is going to have to do.
Even on Spotify, though, these things sound fantastic. There’s actually separation between instruments and warmth to Lawrence’s vocals now instead of the slight crapness of sound that accompanied most of those Cherry Red and early Creation mastering jobs.
Nice! Gotta check those out.
There’s a new album from Mutual Benefit out today. Really like this tune…
I hadn’t listened to this one yet, but when you do check em out make sure to catch the new mix job done on Ignite the Seven Cannons. They’ve stripped out much of the ear-fatiguing Robin Guthrie production that made that album something of a chore to listen to, and replaced it with John Rivers original production. It’s pretty amazing to hear the songs that were underneath all the gossamer bullshit that never fit Felt at all, revealed at last.
Admittedly, it’s also a little weird to hear songs I’m so used to in one way in such a different form. I’m sure I’ll get used to it, though.
Yeah, this sounds great. More detail throughout.
I just ordered Strange Idols Pattern on vinyl. Gotta have at least one of these!
Speaking of remastered classics…
Kora - jazz - funk fusion, if it needs a label.
Miki Berenyi of Lush has a new band called Piroshka, with her husband Moose McKillop (who was the pseudonymous leader of the shoegaze band Moose), Michael Conroy (bassist in Modern English) and Justin Welch (drummer in Elastica, Suede mk II, and Lush’s last tour.)
No word on when we get to hear tunes from them.
That’s cool. I will keep an eye peeled.
Moose was always one of my favorites of the OG shoegazers who never got enough credit; those early EP’s and XYZ album especially. “Jack”, Suzanne", “Last Night I Fell Again”, “Don’t Bring Me Down”. They had some great tunes.
For those who like their 2018 political tunez yelled at them through an Australian accent:
Seasurfer put out a new EP. Do you like Cocteau Twins and shoegaze?
Maybe no one else will be as geeked about this as me, but on the off-chance…but one of my favorite early 1990s bands was a criminally overlooked group called Hypnolovewheel, who always sounded to me like a group posited somewhere between Big Dipper’s pop goofing and Sonic Youth’s noisy mayhem. They just sort of stopped making records around 1994 or so, and that was that.
But and so, and I’m looking at some band pages I follow on Facebook, and one of them is the outstanding Norwegian guitar pop band I Was A King. And they’re finishing their next record. So, nice.
But Frode Stromstad is also playing in another group in the meantime (“killing time”, as he put it.) They’re called Grand Union. And holy shit, it’s a band consisting of Stephen Hunking and Dave Ramirez of Hypnolovewheel, Sue Garner of Run On, Frode, and Gary Olson of The Ladybug Transistor. Olson produced and recorded at his Marlborough Farms studio in Brooklyn. For good measure, the artwork on their first two singles is by Hamish Kilgour.
Just…pump this shit directly into my li’l ol indie pop heart.
Yes, please!
That’s pretty catchy.
I’m sure I still have a Hypnolovewheel CD or two in a box somewhere. They were good, but sadly, they were one of several bands on Alias Records that you could find dozens of their CDs for a buck in the clearance rack at Amoeba. Maybe that’s just a California thing.
Not a California thing. Alias flooded the marketplace with cutouts and promos of a bunch of folks from this era, and sadly Angel Food (the best Hypno album) and Altered States (their last) were lumped into that mess.
Oh, just to confirm, I asked if this was indeed Stephen Hunking and Dave Ramirez from the “criminally unheard and amazing” Hypnolovewheel. Frode responded “Yep! We met at a meeting of criminally unheard bands last year.” :D
Never heard of them, but their style is Thin Lizzy.
I’ll second that! Happy Birthday!
Loving this new one by Courtney Barnett…
RIP John Wicks of The Records. In 1979, he and bandmate Will Burch co-wrote what is easily one of the 100 most perfect rock and roll songs ever, “Starry Eyes”.
He’d had cancer and it had come back a couple of times after he’d been in remission.