Described in a press release as Furman’s “‘spiritually queer’ punk record,” Twelve Nudes was recorded in Oakland during the fall of 2018. With Jay Reatard and philosopher Anne Carson as his spiritual guides, Furman sought to confront his pent-up rage at the misbalanced state of culture and politics.
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MAY 21, 2019 3:04PM ET
Ezra Furman Rebels Against Broken Society in ‘Calm Down aka I Should Not Be Alone’ Video
New album ‘Twelve Nudes’ is out in August
By CLAIRE SHAFFER
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On Tuesday Ezra Furman announced a new album, Twelve Nudes, and released its first single, “Calm Down aka I Should Not Be Alone.” The song is accompanied by a surreal animated video by Beth Jeans Houghton, a.k.a. Du Blonde.
“Desperate times make for desperate songs,” Furman said of “Calm Down” in a press release. “I wrote this in the summer of 2018, a terrible time. It’s the sound of me struggling to admit that I’m not OK with the current state of human civilization, in which bad men crush us into submission. Once you admit how bad it feels to live in a broken society, you can start to resist it, and imagine a better one.”
“…“Here Comes the Cowboy” is the gap-toothed troubadour’s first album to be distributed through a major label, the Universal Music Group-owned Caroline. After issuing EPs and three low-key, psychedelic-tinged albums for the Brooklyn indie Captured Tracks, and accumulating an enviable fan base through relentless touring and endearing live shows, DeMarco is now calling his own shots via his new imprint, Mac’s Record Label…”
Origins is a recurring feature that lets artists dig into the various inspirations behind their latest music.
At the end of the week, Mikal Cronin will release a new two-song 7-inch, his first solo effort in some time. His last album was 2015’s MCIII, but that’s not to say that the California rocker has been absent from the scene since then. Rather, the “Weight” crooner has always been a prolific creator, though he frequently shares his talents with his collaborators like Ty Segall and Kim Gordon.
Mac DeMarco is hanging out at home in Los Angeles, playing video games on the couch, when he picks up the phone. “I don’t really know what’s going on, but let’s rock and roll!” he says.
This might be the most Mac DeMarco way possible to begin a conversation. His unflappably chill folk-rock tunes, laced with a surreal sense of humor, have made the Canadian singer-songwriter an unlikely star. Since breaking through with 2014’s Salad Days, he’s gone from a cult hero to a bankable live draw with hundreds of millions of Spotify streams — all despite making virtually no effort to keep up with contemporary music. (He’d rather listen to “Japanese music from the ’60s and ’70s, and The Beatles.”)
When Mac DeMarco announced the title of his fourth studio album, Here Comes the Cowboy, it seemed like he was following in the footsteps of Kacey Musgraves and Cardi B in the recent trend of the “yeehaw agenda.” Despite the name, the Los Angeles-based indie rocker doesn’t think the record has any cowboy or outlaw themes embedded in it. Honestly, he says, he just made some songs.
“Once known for his outrageous onstage antics and cult-leader-like effect on his followers, Mac DeMarco has, of late, settled into a hermit-like existence in Los Angeles. The result is ‘Here Comes The Cowboy’, an album of minimal, sparse and intimate songs, which is out next week…”
A recent resurgence of punk-powered feminism — or is that girl-powered punk? — raises the question: What was, or is, riot grrrl? A movement, a genre, an era, a scene?
When Bikini Kill took the stage at a packed Palladium in Hollywood on April 25, the band reclaimed a podium it had left 22 years earlier. For much of the audience, the show was a first chance to see the band they had discovered through books, or movies, or maybe even their mom’s record collection. For others, including myself, it was a jolt back to a defining moment in our lives. Time accordioned, and I realized: Bikini Kill is as vital as I remembered.
Ty Segall makes a lot of noise. Since 2008, the California garage-rocker has released nearly a dozen solo albums, plus quite a few collaborations, EPs, one-off singles and more. This summer and fall, Segall will explore his back catalog with a series of multi-night residencies in Los Angeles and New York at which he’ll perform several of his best-loved albums in full.
Ty Segall and his Freedom Band have announced a series of residencies in a few U.S. cities and across Europe. The concerts will feature Segall, alongside Mikal Cronin, Charles Moothart, Emmett Kelly, and Ben Boye, performing select albums from Segall’s discography, including 2010’s Melted, 2011’s Goodbye Bread, 2014’s Manipulator, and 2016’s Emotional Mugger in full on select nights.
Beginning July 26, Segall will perform at Los Angeles’ Teragram Ballroom for 10 consecutive Fridays. The first three he’ll play 2010’s Melted, the fourth and fifth he’ll play 2011’s Goodbye Bread, the sixth and seventh he’ll play 2016’s Emotional Mugger and the final three he’ll play 2014’s Manipulator.
In early October, Segall heads to Brooklyn’s Warsaw for five consecutive nights. He’ll play Melted on Oct. 1 and 2, Goodbye Bread on Oct. 3, Emotional Mugger on Oct. 4 and Manipulator on Oct. 5.Both American venues are familiar turf for Segall, who headlined the Teragram six times and Warsaw five times over 2017 and 2018.
Ty Segall and his Freedom Band have announced a series of residencies in a few U.S. cities and across Europe. The concerts will feature Segall, alongside Mikal Cronin, Charles Moothart, Emmett Kelly, and Ben Boye, performing select albums from Segall’s discography, including 2010’s Melted, 2011’s Goodbye Bread, 2014’s Manipulator, and 2016’s Emotional Mugger in full on select nights.
Thanks to a consistently busy release schedule, Ty Segall has established himself as one of the most prolific rockers in the game. Now, the California native has announced a series of concert residencies highlighting his jam-packed catalog.
Ty Segall and The Freedom Band has announced multi-night residencies in Los Angeles, NYC, Paris, London, and Haarlem, NL where they will play select albums in full, including Melted, Goodbye Bread, Emotional Mugger and Manipulator. (There will be an additional set at these shows where they’ll play “???” still to be announced.) There are 10 Los Angeles shows (Teragram Ballroom on July 26, August 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, September 13, 20 & 27) and five NYC shows (Warsaw on October 1-5).
The Murlocs are an Australian quintet specializing in bright-eyed, gritty, late-60s-style psychedelia with a dash of soulful garage rock. Their recently released fourth album, Manic Candid Episode is a powerful record, roaring through squealing guitars, blazing harmonica, surging rhythms, and hazy, sun-in-your-eyes grooves. Recently, I caught up with front man Ambrose Kenny-Smith as the group hauled their way up the West Coast. He was kind enough to answer just a few questions about the new material, touring, Captain Beefheart, and more.
Ambrose Kenny Smith, harmonica player and frontman of Melbourne, Australia-based band The Murlocs, answered a dozen questions in advance of the band’s first American headlining tour beginning this week. They stop at the Filling Station in Bozeman on Tuesday. Kenny Smith and Cook Craig of The Murlocs are also members of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.
Downtime is not something that Ambrose Kenny-Smith gets a lot of, which, weirdly, is exactly why he can’t wait to get on the road and embrace all the insanity it brings with the Murlocs.
In the current issue of Uncut – in shops now or available to buy online by clicking here – we look back at Oh Sees’ fluid discography and chart their move from acoustic noise experimentation through garage rock and beyond, to the heavier and hairier directions of last year’s hard-grooving Smote Reverser.
“We have been around for 20-something years, so if we haven’t done something that somebody might like at some point…” laughs Oh Sees’ John Dwyer. “Fuck, yeah. We’ve got quite a bit. And there’s more to come, as far as I can tell.
On his 2018 tour de force, Freedom’s Goblin, Ty Segall provided us with a double-album highlight reel of every aesthetic the restless garage rocker has explored in his first decade as a solo artist, from light-speed hardcore to idyllic psychedelic-folk balladry to 12-minute fretboard-snapping jams. But in an interview conducted on the eve of the album’s release, Segall suggested the album represented the closing of a chapter. “I feel like I’ve barely even tapped anything,” he said, before revealing a desire to experiment with electronic production and make a hip-hop album. It remains to be seen whether Ty actually follows through on the transformation into MC Lil T. But if Segall is indeed laying his rocker id to rest for a while, Deforming Lobes is the blaze of glory in which it’s going out.
Melbourne psych-rock band King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have shared a new song called “Boogieman Sam.” It’s the latest offering from their forthcoming record Fishing for Fishies.
California garage rocker Mikal Cronin has been quiet for a while now. Not counting his contributions to frequent collaborator Ty Segall’s albums, we haven’t heard any new music from Cronin since 2015’s MCIII. Today, that silence has come to an end. Cronin has a new 7″ on the way via Famous Class, and today he’s sharing the A-side.
Just shy of four years removed from releasing his MCIII album, Mikal Cronin has returned with a new solo track.
Titled “Undertow,” the song comes from a forthcoming 7-inch that also features a second new song titled “Breathe.”
The 7″ marks his first new solo material in four years, after 2015’s MCIII.
“Undertow” is the first of two new tracks from the 7″ release, and features William Tyler on guitar, additional vocals from Shannon Lay, alongside a number of other contributing musicians.
Mikal Cronin is back with a new song—the rocker’s first solo track in four years. Check out “Undertow” below. The new track features contributions from William Tyler (guitar) and Shannon Lay (vocals), among others.
We’ve heard plenty of music from Mikal Cronin over the last few years, just none of it has been his own material. The California garage rocker has appeared on the last few albums from frequent collaborator Ty Segall, including his 2017 self-titled LP and one of last year’s best records, Freedom’s Goblin, plus he teamed up with Kim Gordon for the anti-Trump rocker “War/Golden God”. Now, Cronin’s returning to his solo career with his first new music since 2015’s MCIII.
Singer-songwriter Mikal Cronin has returned. The sporadic Ty Segall sideman and Merge Records artist has released a new track called “Undertow” on Bandcamp. It is one of the two songs slated to be released on his upcoming 7″, along with “Breathe.”
Mikal Cronin has returned with his first new solo song in four years. “Undertow” was recorded at Palmetto Studio in Los Angeles and features William Tyler (Lambchop, Silver Jews) on guitar and Shannon Lay on backing vocals.
Mikal Cronin shared his first new solo music in four years with the single “Undertow.” The Los Angeles-based musician and longtime Ty Segall associate recorded the track at Palmetto Studios with a band that featured William Tyler on guitar.
