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Song of the Week: The Smile Are Watching on “Wall of Eyes”

Other standout tunes came from Shaina Hayes, Allie X, Danny Brown, and more. Song of the Week: The Smile Are Watching on “Wall of Eyes” Jonah Krueger

The Smile Prove They Aren’t Just a Radiohead Side Project at New York City Show: Recap + Setlist

Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood are many things, but flashy certainly isn’t one of them. Along with drummer Tom Skinner of Sons of Kemet, the two Radiohead members quietly re-emerged together earlier this year as The Smile. The trio released their debut album, May’s A Light for Attracting Attention, with relatively little press or social media promotion surrounding it; as with most good things involving Radiohead, the music speaks for itself. With the exception of Greenwood’s prolific output of consistently beautiful film scores, even the most ardent fans would have to admit that many Radiohead members’ side projects (solo endeavors, the Flea-featuring supergroup Atoms for Peace) have up to this point typically paled in comparison to their main band’s discography. But when Yorke, Greenwood,...

Thom Yorke & Jonny Greenwood Take The Smile for a Round in 24-Hour, Three-Show Concert Series: Recap

The Smile, the English trio formed by Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Sons of Kemet’s Tom Skinner, officially became audience-tested as they completed their first run of in-person performances over the weekend (January 29th-30th) with three shows in just over 12 hours. The trio convened at the Greenwich venue Magazine London for three consecutive concerts at 8:00 p.m., 1:00 a.m., and 11:00 a.m. GMT, which were simultaneously broadcast with time zone considerations for virtual audiences watching in Europe and Africa, the Americas, and Asia and Australia, respectively. The venue’s rounded central stage was packed to the edges with an array of gear and sound equipment that promised a more elaborate set than the relatively spare setup for their surprise debut at the Glastonbury Fes...

Methyl Ethel Announces New Album Are You Haunted?, Shares “Proof” with Stella Donnelly: Stream

Jake Webb has announced his fourth album as Methyl Ethel, Are You Haunted?, out February 18th via Future Classic. He also shared the new single “Proof” as a preview. To construct the nine-track LP, Webb returned to the studio where he conceived many of his first Methyl Ethel tracks back in 2014 and found inspiration in memories and ghosts of the past. “There are these spirits, memories of our old selves, our younger selves, parents, generations past whose deeds, actions, successes and failures shape us,” he said in a statement about the album’s themes. “We all have these ghosts that linger in our present predicaments.” “Proof” follows the previous singles “Neon Cheap” and “Matters.” It features the first-ever guest vocalist on a Methyl Ethel song in Stella Donnelly, who used to play guitar...

Xiu Xiu Dissect New Album of Duets OH NO Track by Track: Stream

In our Track by Track feature, artists take listeners through each song on their new album. Today, Xiu Xiu explore the duets on their latest effort, OH NO. Oh, yes! Experimental duo Xiu Xiu are back with their latest album, OH NO — and they’re not alone. Each track on the 15-song effort features a different guest artist, and you can stream the whole thing below. The band’s 12th full-length serves as the follow-up to 2019’s Girl with Basket of Fruit. It’s ironically fitting that the album largely came together in 2020, as the music Jamie Stewart was writing already had its origins in a well of isolation. Even before the profound loneliness of the pandemic, Stewart was finding himself cutting off a number of close personal relationships following “surprising acts of betrayal and disrespect.”...

Posthumous Alan Vega Song “Fist” Unveiled: Stream

Last month, Sacred Bones announced the release of a long-lost solo album from the late Suicide singer Alan Vega. The record, titled Mutator, is due out next month, and today the label is releasing its second single, “Fist”. Similar to album’s initial preview, “Nike Soldier”, this cut is five minutes of grim yet playful post-punk from one of the best to ever do it. The song has a sleek and rubbery industrial groove that Vega chants “fist” over with the domineering emphasis of a comic book villain. It’s the type of song that’s equally perfect for a wild night at a steamy club or with the lights low in the comfort of your own home. Take a listen below. Vega, who died in 2016, sadly isn’t here to comment on the specific intentions of this song, but a couple of his close collaborators...

David Gilmour Transformed Pink Floyd into the Most Beloved Progressive Rock Band of All Time

There’s little left that needs to be said about Pink Floyd’s astronomical run in the 1970s. Undeniably, the creative, commercial, and critical prosperity achieved by their final four LPs of the decade — The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977), and The Wall (1979) — have rarely, if ever, been matched by any other rock band. Likewise, their musical and cultural influence were just as expansive and enduring, so it’s no wonder they remain almost as prevalent and adored today. (Of course, their output in the 1980s and beyond is also worthwhile, but those ’70s LPs are easily their most significant.) However, the process of getting to that point was far from quick or easy, as their earliest years were filled with crises of artistic identity and potential. Due m...

Nick Cave & Warren Ellis Offer a Tender Glimpse of Hope on the Beautiful Carnage: Review

The Lowdown: In 1997, Nick Cave sang about a “Kingdom” whose light was so bright that “All the world’s darkness can’t swallow up/ A single spark.” On The Boatman’s Call, Cave yearned for this kingdom through a mist of tears born from what he’d later call “a convergence of events that felt so calamitous at the time that I could not find a way to write about anything else.” In the midst of a similarly calamitous convergence of events in 2020 — when it felt impossible to think on anything but widespread sickness, white supremacy, and the fractured state of our society — Cave found himself drawn yet again to the pursuit of this kingdom of light. Carnage, Cave’s new record alongside longtime Bad Seed and soundtrack collaborator Warren Ellis, beautifully and devastatingly documents their pursuit...

Black Country, New Road Unveil New Song “Track X”: Stream

The buzzy Brits of Black Country, New Road have returned with the new song called “Track X”. It’s the latest preview of their debut album For the first time, out February 5th. Like previous releases, “Track X” is understated and eccentric. Frontman Isaac Wood sings in a tone just above spoken word while brass instruments sketch butterflies around his voice. Even as the music looks forward with a heady mix of post-punk and jazz, the lyrics turn fondly backwards, remembering the place “where we fucked as kids,” and the time “I told you I love you in front of black midi.” In a statement, Wood explained how the song came together, saying, “Track X is a song we first worked on in 2018 but one that never made it out into our live performances. We decided to resurrect it during the reco...

Django Django Announce New Album Glowing in the Dark, Share Title Track’s Origins: Stream

Django Django have announced a new album called Glowing in the Dark. Arriving February 12th via Because Music, the forthcoming release marks the British art-rockers fourth full-length to date. The follow-up to 2018’s Marble Skies spans 13 tracks and features a guest appearance from Charlotte Gainsbourg on “Waking Up”. According to… Please click the link below to read the full article. Django Django Announce New Album Glowing in the Dark, Share Title Track’s Origins: Stream Wren Graves You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help giv...

Puscifer Ride the New Wave on Existential Reckoning: Review

The Lowdown: Puscifer’s fourth studio album sees the enigmatic vocalist Maynard James Keenan (Tool, A Perfect Circle) joined once more by core members Mat Mitchell (guitar/production) and Carina Round (vocals/songwriting), among others. Existential Reckoning is their first LP in five years (Money Shot dropped in 2015). On the new effort, Puscifer offer up another go-round of electro-arty rock tunes, which lyrically seem to follow the continuing adventures of characters Billy D, and his wife, Hildy Berger … with the former purportedly the victim of an alien abduction. The Good: Any new music from Mr. Keenan is sure to please his legion of admirers. And Puscifer once again sees Keenan and company build tunes around electronics as their foundation (at times comparable to early ‘80s new wavers...

Gorillaz Continue to Exude Colorful Chemistry on Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez: Review

The Lowdown: Ever since they first stole our hearts about 20 years ago, Gorillaz — the genre-splicing virtual band spearheaded by Damon Albarn, Jamie Hewlett, and now Remi Kabaka Jr. — have provided about as much visual flamboyance and experimentation as musical. In other words, they’ve always made exceptional use of things like music videos, 3-D concert projections, and web-based gimmicks to not only enhance the impact and mystique of their albums and lore but also to push the limits of what modern, multimodal artistry can achieve in a broader sense. Earlier this year, they announced arguably their most ambitious endeavor yet: Song Machine, a web series wherein each “episode” features a new song/music video that encapsulates Gorillaz’s trademark tongue-in-cheek bizarreness, stylistic flex...

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