Licking the Rabbit

CHASTITY BELT - DIFFERENT NOW. It’s probably not a coincidence Chastity Belt is coming up with new music on international women’s day. Different Now is an introspective kind of song, and check out that video: a female recreation of Temple of the Dog’s video Hunger Strike. The new Chastity Belt LP I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone  is coming on June 2nd on Hardly Art. 

REAL ESTATE - STAINED GLASS. It’s great hearing a bit more powerful sounding Real Estate thanks to sparkling new song Stained Glass, including vocal harmonies to die for. With the video, the band even helps you play along with the song. The new Real Estate LP In Mind is out next week on Domino.

DUDE YORK - TONIGHT. Dude York from Seattle plays awesome power pop, mixing everything you love about The Replacements and The Strokes in their younger days. Tonight is a straight out huge hit with a killer chorus filled with your favorite power chords. The single is one of the highlights on their great new album Sincerely, that just came out on the wonderful Hardly Art label. Check it out.

The new Moon Moon Moon album Help! Help! is released on March 17th through the small Dutch label Tiny Room Records. 

ULRIKA SPACEK - MIMI PRETEND. London noise pop band Ulrika Spacek started making a new record just after releasing a great debut a year ago. The second Ulrika Spacek LP Modern English Decoration is out sometime this June, and the nicely nagging Mimi Pretend is a first song of it, sounding somewhere in between the later Sonic Youth and earlier Deerhunter. DIY is important for this band: again, they recorded the whole record in several rooms in their own house annex art gallery.

THURSTON MOORE - CEASE FIRE. Sonic Youth co-founder and noise rock veteran Thurston Moore doesn’t seem to get a year older. That’s the feeling you’ll get listening to his newest song. And of course, Cease Fire blends in perfectly in the grand Sonic Youth / Thurston Moore canon, running for six minutes and pending between aggressive melodic parts and scratchy guitar noise. Welcome back, sir. No word of a new album yet, but Moore and band will play shows and festivals this summer, including the Dutch Best Kept Secret festival in June.

JAY SOM - BAYBEE. Californian musician Jay Som is so ready to release a proper new album, after uploading tons of music on her Bandcamp page in the past couple of years and playing all instruments herself (!). This mildly funky dreampop song with new wave guitars called Baybee is another cut from her new record called Everybody Works. It’s got a chorus to die for: you could probably listen to it all day without getting tired of it. Also listen to the more raw sounding 1 Billion Dogs. Everybody Works is out on March 10th. Check out a pretty good Artist To Watch profile on Stereogum.

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE - JIMMY MACK. Animal Collective goes Motown with a great bouncy cover of Jimmy Mack, originally by Martha & The Vandellas. The song is the closer of the new EP The Painters, featuring additional recordings of the 2016 album Painting With. Those three other songs are quite nice as well, but this cover beats them easily. The Painters EP was released last week on Domino.

MARIKA HACKMAN - BOYFRIEND. Singer Marika Hackman get’s some help from The Big Moon in her catchy and pretty exuberant new rock song Boyfriend. It’s a taste of her upcoming album I’m Not Your Man, the follow up to the great debut We Slept At Last (2015), released on June 2nd. It’s also fun to watch the game between a boys band and the girls’ band in the accompanying video. 

JESCA HOOP - MEMORIES ARE NOW. A real slow burning beauty of a record: Memories Are Now by Californian singer Jesca Hoop. The opener of her fifth solo LP is the kinda bluesy yet optimistic and minimal title track, a great example of how Hoop explores new sounds and structures on her newest album, that was released by Sub Pop. The video that comes with the song is stuffed with strange visuals... 

MOSS - WITH YOU. The most beautiful song on the new Moss LP Strike? That must be With You, driven by a motorik groove that reminds me of Lower Dens’ Braids and with guitar and vocal melodies you wish you could embrace tightly. Strike is the fifth album by Dutch band Moss, released this friday by Excelsior Recordings and recorded in the Antwerp studio property of dEUS. Even though not all songs are as spot on as With You or earlier single My Decision, the band sure sounds better than ever. You can stream the record on Spotify.

GREAT YTENE - LOCUS. This week, it’s 40 years ago that the classic post punk LP Marquee Moon by Television was released. London band Great Ytene keeps a similar post punk spirit alive in Locus, a haunting song of their upcoming debut album with the same name. The tension in the music is high until the end, when walls of guitar noise suddenly surround you. The album Locus is out next week (February 17th). 

SVÄVA – SVÄVA EP. Sväva is a band from northern Netherlands, crafting beautiful songs inspired by dark dreampop and a Warpaint-like sound. Their new, self-titled EP contains five songs, in which Sväva continues to expand its sound with synthesizers, sudden changes of rhythm and a more important role for silence. The vocals by singer Bente Hout remain powerful as in their earlier work. Check out the EP on Bandcamp - where you can buy it as well - and go see Sväva live: dates on their Bandcamp-page.

THE BLACK ANGELS - CURRENCY. After four years of silence, heavy psych rockers The Black Angels from Austin, Texas are back with a vengeance. The way new song Currency blasts through our speakers is a pure delight. Sounds like their new record Death Song will be a dark and loud affair, since the band was influenced by the last presidential elections in the US.... The new Black Angels album is out on April 21st.

March 20 - Leeds – Brudenell March 21 - Manchester UK – Deaf Institute March 22 - London UK – The Dome March 23 - Winchester UK – The Railway Inn March 25 - Brighton UK – Sticky Mikes March 27 – Paris, FR – Les Femmes S’En Melent Festival March 28 – Brussels BE – Rotonde March 29 – Hamburg DE – Hakken March 30 – Berlin DE – Gruener Salon March 31 – Munich DE – Milla April 2 – Munster DE – American Series – Pumpenhaus April 3 – Rotterdam NL – Rotown April 4 – Utrecht NL – EKKO April 5 – Groningen NL –Vera

DIRTY PROJECTORS - COOL YOUR HEART. Here’s the most accessible and upbeat new Dirty Projectors song of Dave Longstreth’s upcoming breakup album. Although accessible doesn’t mean the music isn’t a bit weird and playful. Longstreth is backed up vocally by Dawn Richard in this song that was co-written by Solange. Especially the effect of the trumpets in the finale is quite euphoric. Far less dark material then Dirty Projectors’ previous new singles. The self-titled new record is out on February 24th through Domino.

AMBER ARCADES - IT CHANGES. Dutch indie darling Amber Arcades follows up her acclaimed debut album Fading Lines with a new, one off single: It Changes. Another very good song that would’ve fit perfectly on Fading Lines, sounding a bit rougher around the edges. Which is a good thing, if you ask me.  Maybe because it was recorded in the middle of a tour through the USA? As a live band, Amber Arcades only got better over the course of the year, so let’s hope we’ll get to see the band on a lot of festivals this year.