Indierock | Alternative 15 Items

Animal, Surrender! is Peter Kerlin (sunwatchers and Chris Forsyth & Solar Motel Band) and drummer ROB Smith (GREY/Smith, Rhyton, Pigeons, D. Charles Spear). Kerlin leads the duo through a set of bass-driven compositions and interpretations, incorporating spare electronics through a post-rock/weird-folk trance with intricate and sometimes blasted interplay between the rhythm section. The project’s title refers to the ambiguous creatureliness of the human animal: How in trying to kill the animal within we eradicated all wildness on the planet; How in our never-ending evasion of any discomfort we guaranteed the destruction of all that sustains us. It's about other things too, like falling outs among friends and how even if it's the end it's not the end.

Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse are happy to announce the release of their 3rd studio album, 'Hot Nostalgia Radio', alongside the release of the first single, 'Satisfy Your Queen', to digital platforms worldwide.The California-based Roots-Rock band have been gaining momentum across the UK and Europe for their acclaimed genre-bending music and epic one-of-a-kind live shows. Beaux Gris Gris expand their eclectic nature once again with this14 track album, celebrating and paying homage to classic songwriting and crossing the genre's that inspired their development as artists.Kicking the party off with a bang, BGG&TA presents their scorching rock single, 'Satisfy Your Queen'. A classic Rock n' Roll underpinning, bluesy riffs and an empowering chorus, the song kicks up a heavy fuss out of the gate, and doesn’t let up till the final note.True to form the album might be hard to categorize, but as the title suggests, it never strays away from being easily accessible. Front woman and songwriter, Greta Valenti explains: 'We've had over 4 years to write this album. The last album was recorded in 2019, pre-pandemic and then we had to sit on it for two years. I had over 100 song ideas waiting to go, but I really wanted this album to represent classic simple songwriting that strikes a chord within your soul. Every song should be a banger in some way, and these songs are really an evolution of who I am and who we are as a band. They're not complicated on the surface, but I hope these songs make you feel and are added to the soundtrack of your life - fitting seamlessly with the songs you already know and love.' Greta adds, 'So even though the songs may veer from Rock to Blues to Soul to Americana-Country to Singer-Songwriter, they are still essentially 3 to 4 minute pop songs. Our fans aren't genre-specific and neither are we. They just like good songs and wanna have a good time. And so do we.''I think our approach harkens back to when bands like the Beatles would write a bunch of different style songs, be it country, or psychedelic, or whatever they did they would always sound like the Beatles', guitarist Robin Davey adds. 'We certainly don't sound like the Beatles, but I hope that no matter what we do we are still easily identifiable as Beaux Gris Gris'.A deluxe double coloured vinyl set with LP sized booklet. Plays at 45rpm for higher fidelity! Side 1: 1. Oh Yeah (2:33) / 2. Wild Woman (2:47) / 3. Satisfy Your Queen (4:18) / 4. I Told My Baby (2:05). Side 2: 5. Middle Of The Night (3:21) / 6. Sad When I'm Dancing (3:21) / 7. All I Could Do Was Cry (3:22). Side 3: 8. The Runaway (4:36) / 9. Harder To Breathe (3:43) / 10. Don't Let Go (3:51). Side 4: 11. Penny Paid Rockstar (3:18) / 12. Marie (4:19) / 13. Let's Ride (3:23) / 14. Mama Cray (3:30)

Crack Cloud’s new album Tough Baby is both a clarion call and a life-manual for the listener. Unsurprisingly, it is a record with purpose and resolve. Nothing is wasted. Sometimes the music feels deliberately compressed, the essences extracted and bottled into an overpowering cordial, as on ‘115 At Night’, which sounds like an ‘80s Van Halen track being squeezed into another shape. And it’s difficult to see how a track like ‘Virtuous Industry’ can hold itself together, such are the sonic hoops it jumps through. The sharp angles and hook-laden guitar lines that were once seen as a trademark sound are less in evidence. Last track ‘Crackin Up’ does nod back to earlier releases with a booming beat and guitars that snag, like wool on barbed wire. Tough Baby contains music to think to, music with which to educate, agitate and organise. Zach Choy: “The name Tough Baby is an allusion to our Planet. To our Culture. And to our Selves.” It’s made to remind us that whilst we are all in the gutter to some extent, some of us are looking at the kerb.

Emerging in the late 1990s, Division OF Laura LEE quickly established themselves with a unique blend of post-punk and alternative indie rock. Celebrating their rich musical heritage, Lovitt Records has released the 25th anniversary edition of their seminal 1999 album, At the Royal Club. This special edition is a thoughtfully curated compilation of tracks from the band's first two years, inviting both long-standing fans and new listeners to experience the album’s visceral intensity and the band’s trailblazing spirit. Previously only available on CD, this reissue of At the Royal Club has been expertly remastered for vinyl, bringing a renewed vibrancy to the original recordings. This release not only breathes new life into an iconic collection of tracks but also honors the enduring spirit and influence of Division of Laura Lee

Forgive Too Slow, avant-garde artist Julia-Sophie’s deeply personal debut album is testament to her ability to transform adversity into raw beauty, combining her traditional songwriting roots with her own take on experimental electronica. It features her intimate voice backed by warm and precise electronic sounds whose free spirited explorations give body to the carefully written personal songs.

Julia-Sophie comes off the drama of her 2010s rock band, Little Fish, which was signed to a major label. The surreal experiences (like being flown to Las Vegas in helicopters with a bag of slot machine money or given limousines for the day to go shopping), along with having to work in environments where she felt unsafe, drove her decision to leave the fame game. She turned down the offer to emigrate to America and engage with the machinations of the system as it did not feel “true or congruent with who I was.” Instead, she focused her attention on her hometown (Oxford, UK).

She started recording lo-fi pop in her garage, using an old laptop, wonky microphones and hitting whatever was around for beats. Her band at the time, Candy Says, grew to be more of a collective than a band, and eventually co-wrote a film score for indie film Burn Burn Burn and recorded a cover of “Running Up That Hill” for the Netflix film Close (starring Noomi Rapace).

Julia-Sophie soon started recording songs with her friend B, who had a studio stacked from wall-to-wall with analogue recording gear, vintage synths and drum machines. She decided to self-release and the music reached audiences beyond her expectations, including support from BBC Radio 6 and a feature in The Quietus.

Forgive Too Slow is Julia-Sophie’s debut solo album, and concerns relationships and the struggles one goes through when one “forgives too slow” and can’t break out of patterns from the past. The songs narrate her story of self-destruction (“Numb”), love (“Falling”), and loss (“Telephone”). By the end, embers are still burning and there is no telling if Julia-Sophie has found peace, but one does get a sense that she has gotten closer to the core of her being and is finally living authentically.

BORN VILLAIN is the eighth studio album by Marilyn Manson, released in 2012. Two singles were released from the album (No Reflection and Slo-Mo-Tion).

Perennial is an art project: Mod pop, post-hardcore, 60s soul, ambient electronic music, midcentury design, abstract expressionism, French New Wave cinema; it’s all collage material for Perennial. The band—electric organist Chelsey Hahn, guitarist Chad Jewett and drummer Ceej Dioguardi—is equal parts manic basement show bombast and studio-as-instrument headphone listening. To see the New England three-piece in person is to experience a 20-minute burst of kinetic energy: dynamic, reckless, electrifying. To put on one of Perennial’s records is to spend almost the same amount of time with impeccably layered studio-as-instrument punk modernism. Art History, the band’s newest full-length album (out June 7 via Ernest Jenning Record Co.), finds Perennial further experimenting with their angular cut-and-glue aesthetic. An adventurous 20 minutes of impressionist punk energy, British Invasion guitar pop chic, and Mod-inflected rhythm and noise rave-ups, Art History is both Perennial’s most giddily accessible and most artistically daring record to date. Edition of 275 copies pressed on clear with black and green splatter vinyl.

There are two versions of Perennial: the adventurous art-punk modernists, layering British Invasion pop, 60s soul, 90s Dischord post-hardcore, electronic music, and free-jazz, and the live three-piece whose bombastic 20 minute sets have become a “must-see” in the New England music scene. What started in 2015 as an all-encompassing art project has since grown into an honest-to-goodness word-of-mouth phenomenon, with over 300 shows played in the last six years (including shows with Guerilla Toss, Bully, Calvin Johnson, Jon Spencer, Sheer Mag, Teenage Halloween, and Downtown Boys) and multiple pressings of both of their full-length records. Perennial formed the band they always wanted to hear, and when they play, they're the band they always wanted to see.

As subjects of a recent career spanning vault-clearing anthology, the likelihood that more old recordings by The Strange Girls might surface was an unlikely one. Thankfully it’s just what happened. Culled from leaky audience video recordings, Truly & Lyric features two Clayton Noone songs that never surfaced elsewhere. These date from around 2002 and feature the core duo of Kaaterama Morehu and Noone. Draped in artwork by Mark Anderson (Greymouth), Truly & Lyric offers another fleeting glimpse at The Strange Girls’ downcast beauty in action. Limited to 200.

What Kind of Human Have I Become is a new vehicle helmed by Matt Plunkett (Cuticles, The Trendees, etc.). Conceived as a solo endeavor, the designation got a bit blurry following an invitation to record his new songs with Stefan Neville (Pumice, etc.) at the studio he shares with Ben Holmes (Oksun Ox, etc.) in Auckland.

Once in the studio, Plunkett’s songs puffed in a wholly new way with Neville at the controls, and backing and bits from both Neville and Holmes perhaps channeling Nag and Bendie. Fans of Matt’s past and current activities will find much to rejoice in here; Avoiding The Diggy Diggy Dogs plucks three songs from the sessions. More to come in due time.

We're all familiar with this story: the pandemic struck, and people found themselves confined to their homes, left alone with their thoughts. Amidst various musical projects, Shelby Cinca reached out to his former bandmates with the idea of creating and instrumental album in the style of FRODUS—a desire that had never materialized during the band's active years. Despite the challenges of life and logistics, the project began to take shape as Nate and Shelby brainstormed and organized their ideas. They recalled an offer from their fellow DC friend and prolific musician, Aaron DC Edge, to provide raw drum tracks. Shelby accepted Aaron's offer to kickstart a rhythmic foundation, and soon the project came to life. Some tracks remained faithful to the original demos, while others underwent substantial editing. Eventually, songs began to take form in an organic manner, despite the geographical distance between the collaborators. Conceptually, the group aimed to craft a soundtrack for a post-human world, inspired by a cryptic phrase hidden in the artwork of Frodus's last album: "when man dies, we become wolves again." These songs conjure images of overgrown and ruined cities, the return of wildlife, and the interplay of light and darkness, peace and savagery, coexisting in the after- math of humanity's downfall. Without the prominent narrative of anguished vocals, the vistas emerge in the mind's eye without barriers, allowing for a more subtle and profound exploration of the themes.