{"title":"The Year End Event - Limited Edition","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"generationals-reader-as-detective","title":"Generationals - Reader As Detective","description":"\u003cp\u003e From their inception, \u003cstrong\u003eGenerationals\u003c\/strong\u003e have existed at the convergence of classic style and contemporary technique. Students of an analog school actualized in a digital medium, Grant Widmer and Ted Joyner have always felt most comfortable reveling in this juxtaposition. Grounded in a catalog of infectious pop hooks that feel both familiar and radically new all at once, \u003cstrong\u003eGenerationals\u003c\/strong\u003e mastered their distinct voice as a means to widen the path before them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eReader As Detective\u003c\/em\u003e, their new full-length album, weds vintage pop canon and modern pop production in a way this duo has proven incomparably adept. From the cornerstone sample of “I Turned My Back on the Written Word,” (a recontextualization of an unreleased b-side) to the playful synths \u0026amp; stuttered drums of “Dream Box,” and jogging rhythms of \"Breaking Your Silence,\" \u003cstrong\u003eGenerationals\u003c\/strong\u003e continue to push the envelope by playing by their own rules.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e In the years following their last album, \u003cem\u003eAlix\u003c\/em\u003e, the band experimented by releasing one-off singles and videos immediately upon their completion, which eventually formed 2018’s \u003cem\u003eState Dogs\u003c\/em\u003e collection. This method – an exploratory dive in shirking the nature of traditional album rollouts – refined how they approached writing. Freed from the album-cycle mentality, the pair was able to focus on each track autonomously, rather than as a fragment of a larger batch of songs.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eReader As Detective\u003c\/em\u003e is the result of purposeful time spent honing \u003cstrong\u003eGenerationals\u003c\/strong\u003e’ craft as progressive songwriters. With the help of producer and longtime collaborator Dan Black, they dug into new methods of creation with a fearlessness for experimentation that is equally vital to the experience of both artist and listener. 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We’re not really present.” \u003cstrong\u003eHazel English\u003c\/strong\u003e wants us to open our eyes. Through her shimmering, daydream-pop, the California based singer-songwriter is on a mission to rattle the cages of our very existence, asking us to dig deep and ask challenging questions of ourselves. \u003cem\u003eWake UP!\u003c\/em\u003e, her debut album, is a call to arms: an attempt to “make people become more aware and mindful,” she says.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Since debuting with bittersweet single ‘Never Going Home’ in 2016, the Sydney-born artist has felt the urge to connect with her listeners in a meaningful way. Blending wistful, candid lyricism with jangling psych and beach-pop sounds, English’s compelling songwriting has earned her over 25 million streams, airplay on BBC Radio 1, 6Music and Beats, praise from Lauren Laverne and Annie Mac, and press acclaim with double EP \u003cem\u003eJust Give In\/Never Going Home\u003c\/em\u003e labelled by The 405 as “one of the strongest records of the year”. 2019 saw her gain an even wider audience after touring with Lord Huron and Death Cab For Cutie.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Where the double EP was very much a lo-fi, bedroom-produced record, English left her home setup behind in favour of roomy recording studios and tapped up session players for her debut album. Bigger, lusher, and more live-sounding, the LP shows a new side to English: one that conveys the joy and excitement of collaboration. Drawing from a more grandiose sonic palette while pulling on the same sun-kissed thread of her previous work, half of the record was made in LA with super-producer Justin Raisen (Sky Ferreira, Charli XCX, Angel Olsen), while English flew to Atlanta to work with Ben H. Allen (Deerhunter, M.I.A, Animal Collective) on the other half.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Listening to the record, it should come as no surprise that ‘Revolver’-era Beatles, The Mamas \u0026amp; The Papas, The Zombies and Jefferson Airplane were all at the forefront of her mind while recording. “Radical messages need a raw and vibrant backdrop to pop,” she says, and she’s kept her trademark sunshine-filled sound that fits her Los Angeles dwelling, but with bigger, stirring choruses. It's a testament to English’s writing style and ear for a hook that she won’t make anything that she couldn’t play stripped back to its bones, refusing to rely on production to carry a song. Standouts like the infectious ‘Off My Mind’ and ‘Like A Drug’, with its swirling hypnosis, find English’s songcraft at its most accomplished.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Lead single ‘Shaking’ wears its ‘60s psych influences on its paisley patterned sleeve. Written by Hazel and frequent collaborator Blake Stranathan (Lana Del Rey), it was a painstaking effort: “I just couldn’t rest until I had gotten it to a place where it felt like I could sleep at night. And I’m really glad I did,” she says. Tackling themes of power, lust, manipulation, pleasure, and control, its Erin S. Murray-directed video strikes right at the heart of this idea, finding English as the charismatic ringleader of her own Manson-esque cult, manipulating her subjects in a babydoll dress and beehive hairstyle. “It presents the promise of a spiritual awakening as a kind of seduction,” she says.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e An open sufferer of anxiety, English wrote the record following something of an existential crisis. Stuck and isolated, she felt like life was becoming a series of mundane objectives. She began asking herself: “am I happy? Do I like the direction I’m going in life? Am I engaged with my community? Do I feel connected to others?” English realised that the answers to all these questions were, for her, resounding nos. The album’s title became a kind of personal mantra to her – “a reminder to wake up and be present in a time where we are used to switching off and looking for constant entertainment,” she says. “[‘Wake UP!] will mean something different to everyone. Like, oh yeah, I’ve been sleeping on this goal of mine, or I need to spend more time with my kids. It’s for whatever people need to confront.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Obsessing over old movies and vintage clothing since the age of 15, English took cues from surrealism, dadaism and the writings of sci-fi novelist Philip K. Dick for the record. She wrote words before she became a musician – before a student exchange programme prompted her San Francisco move, English was studying creative writing in Melbourne and writing poetry prolifically. After reading Guy Debord’s 1967 book \u003cem\u003eThe Society of the Spectacle\u003c\/em\u003e, English began pondering our obsession with self-image. In it, Debord considers how we get caught up in the ‘spectacle’: How am I perceived by others? How can I make it seem like I'm successful? English draws parallels from the ‘60s text with our social media-crazed present as “essentially creating a fabricated version of yourself and making sure it seems like you’re living this amazing life. It’s not a true experience. 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New album \u003ci\u003eFuture Past Life\u003c\/i\u003e breaks new ground, dialing back some of the high-gloss production they’re known for to craft songs that are stripped down, spaced out and somehow as visceral as they are dream-like. STRFKR goes deeper into these songs by breaking them down to their essential elements, finding a new immediacy when working with raw materials.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMuch like the music on \u003ci\u003eFuture Past Life\u003c\/i\u003e, the way the album came together is strange and winding. In 2014, STRFKR’s principal songwriter\/lead vocalist Josh Hodges was staying in Amsterdam for a few months, working on the music that became \u003ci\u003eBeing No One, Going Nowhere\u003c\/i\u003e. By complete chance, a European traveller who was crashing at Hodges’ house in L.A. while he was abroad connected him with some like-minded musicians in Amsterdam, Mathias Janmat and David Hoogerheide. Even though they were more or less strangers, the three musicians clicked almost instantly, coming up with new songs within the first few hours of meeting. They got together to work on new ideas several times while Hodges was in Amsterdam, and the new Dutch collaborators even ended up contributing to the STRFKR song “Tape Machine”. Hodges made his way back to the States, but as time passed he found himself returning to the songs from those Amsterdam sessions. Ultimately the band decided that material was so inspired and magical, it was something that needed to be heard. Honing in on the vibe of those songs, they were able to reinterpret those demos into something new, retaining the core elements of their sound as they routed it into new territory.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHaving returned to Portland after living for a time in L.A., Hodges finished the album in his new home studio, getting input abroad from Janmat and Hoogerheide and at home from bandmates Shawn Glassford and Keil Corcoran to help flesh out the final renderings. For the first time on a STRFKR album, every song is driven by acoustic guitar as synth melodies take on a more supportive role. Rough-edged mixes push the drums into the red and trade cleaner production for an atmospheric lo-fi approach. Lead single \"Never The Same\" is warm and direct, with a straightforward delivery that highlights how vulnerable the band's lyrics can be. This kind of careful, hushed energy is new territory for STRFKR. Going out on this ledge results in one of the band's most rewarding songs, one that's mysterious and lush but as intense as a secret being whispered in your ear. The multiple viral melodies of “Deep Dream” twist ecstatically as reverb-coated percussion and distant ambient textures add to the otherworldly vibe. “Budapest” locks into an airy groove, washed over by waves of angelic vocal harmonies from Polyvinyl labelmates \u003cstrong\u003eShy Boys\u003c\/strong\u003e. The entire album feels stuck on a cloud somewhere between earthbound rhythms and alien song structures doused in echo.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe immaculate but danceable pop that has long been STRFKR’s calling card is pushed into exciting new places on \u003ci\u003eFuture Past Life\u003c\/i\u003e. On past records, heavy lyrical themes and darker undercurrents could get obscured by infectious hooks, but here minimal arrangements cut to the emotional center of the songs. 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In fact, she was planning on making a record with Against Me!, the band she’s fronted for the past 23 years. But clearly, nothing went according to plan this year. “We came home from the Against Me! tour we were on in March, and right before we left, we had been in the studio working on songs, and I had been working on them for months prior,” says Grace. As she sat at home, all of her tours canceled, and the members of Against Me!—as well as her other band Laura Jane Grace \u0026amp; The Devouring Mothers—spread across the country, she was left with a batch of songs and no band to record them with. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:#000000;\"\u003e“I sat around for a month-and-a-half at a home just being shellshocked being like, ‘What the fuck happened and what the fuck is happening with the world?’ As I started to get my bearings, I just came to the realization that waiting was going to kill the record and kill the songs. I spent two years working on all these songs, and the idea of throwing them away didn’t sit well with me,” says Grace. “But then I was like, ‘What am I waiting for?’ All I have to do is adjust my scope. I can sit here on my fucking ass and do nothing, or I can work.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:#000000;\"\u003eSo, Grace got to work. She picked up the phone and called Electrical Audio, the iconic studio in her adopted hometown of Chicago, Illinois, to ask if she could make a record with famed engineer Steve Albini. The goal was to go in and document these songs exactly as she’d been playing them in her home, straight to analog tape. When she hung up the phone, she had four days booked. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:#000000;\"\u003eThe result of the session at Electrical Audio is \u003ci\u003eStay Alive\u003c\/i\u003e, a record that doesn’t just embody that title, it serves as the guiding principle behind its creations. But it also put life back into an industry that’s been ravaged by venue closures, cancelled tours, and delayed records. “By putting the songs out, that puts the label in work, that puts a photographer in work, that puts a graphic designer in work, that puts a merch company in work, that keeps it alive,” says Grace. “You hear on the news every day about people losing their jobs and everything collapsing, and I want to fight against that. The only way I can think to fight against that is to work.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:#000000;\"\u003eAcross the 14 songs that comprise \u003ci\u003eStay Alive\u003c\/i\u003e, Grace takes all her pent-up fears, anger, and anxiety and releases it, like an olive branch to the weary listeners who are feeling those exact same ways. As she says in “Blood \u0026amp; Thunder,” a love song to Chicago—or perhaps a mea culpa for “I Hate Chicago” on The Devouring Mothers album \u003ci\u003eBought to Rot\u003c\/i\u003e—the album’s thematic premise is all but spelled out: “When you give in and quit \/ There’s a power to be found in it.” It’s an idea that may sound odd on its face, but it displays Grace’s commitment to no longer resisting the changes in front of her. On a record that sees her traversing the globe—from Marbella, Spain to Glasgow, Scotland to London, England to the Land of Oz—”Blood \u0026amp; Thunder” is a begrudging embrace of what can’t be changed; Instead of resisting the city she once loathed, she finds the beauty in the little things, like the moon rising over Indian Boundary Park, or the wind rolling up Western Avenue. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:#000000;\"\u003eThe album’s title is one that surfaces in the record itself, and serves as a subtle rejoinder to her Polyvinyl labelmate Chris Farren, who gifted Grace a hat that said “Can’t Die,” and she’s spent the last two years running in it every single day. By flipping the phrase on its head, Grace built her own message; one based around work, struggle, and reaffirmed commitments. In certain cases, songs like “Hanging Tree,” which has a chorus that builds to the phrase, “A burning crucifix and a hanging tree,” have been kicking around since 2017, but finally found a moment that made sense for it on \u003ci\u003eStay Alive\u003c\/i\u003e. And in the case of “Shelter In Place,” a song about her own isolation and introspection, the pandemic finally gave words to a feeling she’d long had but was never able to accurately describe. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:#000000;\"\u003eThe songs that make up \u003ci\u003eStay Alive\u003c\/i\u003e are documents of a time and a songwriter who experienced enough to find levity in the simple act of doing the work. Recorded with nothing more than an acoustic guitar, an occasional drum machine, and her own powerful voice, Grace’s distinct songwriting signature is front and center. What’s more, she made it purely for herself. “I just want to put this out because it makes me feel alive and it’s giving me something better than sitting here losing my mind while the world falls apart,” says Grace. “It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks about what you do. 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A profound sense of emotional vulnerability weaves its way throughout the dozen albums the group has made, but also a spirit of openness and experimentalism as they peer into the sonic unknown, creating moments of catharsis by harnessing bursts of noise and other uncommon sounds. They have collaborated with confessional songwriters like Mitski and avant-garde composers like Charlemagne Palestine, displaying an uncommon fluency in both worlds. Singer and songwriter Jamie Stewart’s lyrics are often veiled in layers of metaphor, but his delivery always suggests urgency and intimacy, that there’s a universal truth that cuts deep. Xiu Xiu makes beautiful music for hard times. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:#000000;\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eOH NO\u003c\/i\u003e, the group’s newest album, is an album of duets, with Stewart sharing the spotlight with an array of guests who have made an impact on him personally and musically. Sharon Van Etten’s tentative musings open the album, and from there vocalists from across the musical spectrum, including Circuit des Yeux’s Haley Fohr, Liz Harris, Alice Bag, Chelsea Wolfe, Owen Pallet, and Twin Shadow’s George Lewis Jr., all drift into Xiu Xiu’s distinctive soundworld. \u003ci\u003eOH NO\u003c\/i\u003e was written and recorded in Xiu Xiu’s home studio in Los Angeles throughout 2019 and 2020, and produced by Xiu Xiu’s Angela Seo, experimental musician Lawrence English, and Deerhoof’s Greg Saunier, who also sings on the incisive, noise-laden song “Goodbye For Good.” The album was born out of anguish and isolation, but exists as it does because of a profound rediscovery of community and friendship. It is the sound of finding one’s place in the world after the destructive powers of jealousy and mistrust make any map seemingly unreadable.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:#000000;\"\u003eAs Stewart began writing the songs that would end up on \u003ci\u003eOH NO\u003c\/i\u003e, a series of long-standing friendships and musical partnerships were abruptly and unilaterally severed after surprising acts of betrayal and disrespect. Stewart was thrown into a deep pit of dull isolation, unsure of how he got there. He cancelled tours, and spoke publicly about mental health issues that prompted his closing off to the world. But as he did, people he had not talked to in many years reached out offering support. Xiu Xiu fans wrote expressing how his music had helped them through their own personal tragedies, offering reciprocal care as he faced his own intense darknesses. In a way that was new and unfamiliar, there was a critical mass of people showing him how much he meant, and had always meant. Their words and actions provided the rope he needed to leave that pit behind and emerge with a newfound appreciation of those around him, and humanity at large. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:#000000;\"\u003eAnd so Stewart, along with Seo, decided to have this collection of songs, many of which speak directly to the experience of dissolution and abandonment, as well as the shared reality of environmental devastation, represent the combined expressions of love and humanity that so effectively vanquished that darkness. There is no shortage of severity and shadow, this is a Xiu Xiu album after all, but here it is a burden shared. On “The Grifters,” Haley Fohr’s full-bodied wail bolsters Stewart’s wavering falsetto over stark acoustic guitar. Alice Bag’s defiant chiming of “Knock Out” provides a perfect foil to his tentative singing of “hey hey.” Chelsea Wolfe helps Stewart turn The Cure’s “One Hundred Years,” a favorite of his since high school, into pulsating industrial music that radiates intensity. And Liz Harris provides gorgeous beds of harmonizing vocals to “A Bottle of Rum,” one of the hookiest songs Stewart has ever written. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:#000000;\"\u003e“The guest stars of \u003ci\u003eOH NO\u003c\/i\u003e reflect the types of people, and many of the very same, who helped remind me that the ratio of beautiful humans to shitty humans is more like 60\/40 rather than what I have always assumed was 1\/99,” says Stewart. “Although there is an ‘I HATE PEOPLE’ pin on my guitar strap, I hate them less now.” His revelation, and the music that has come out of it, is a reminder of the power of Xiu Xiu’s music to surprise and connect. Listening to the songs on \u003ci\u003eOH NO\u003c\/i\u003e, it is hard to feel truly alone. Instead, it is a reminder that even when we’re alone, we’re alone together. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cblockquote\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eAll songs by Xiu Xiu, except for “One Hundred Years” by The Cure.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eInstruments by:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eAngus Andrew – vox\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eAlice Bag – vox\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eJherek Bischoff – double bass\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eJohn Congleton – optigan, granular sampler\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eZachary Dawes – double bass, bass guitar\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eDeb Demure – vox\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eValerie Diaz – vox\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eHaley Fohr – vox\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eLiz Harris – vox\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eDavid Kendrick – drum kit, bongos, percussion\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eCharlie Looker – guitar, bass guitar\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eJonathan Meiburg – vox, animal calls\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eOwen Pallett – vox\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eFabrizio Modonese Palumbo – vox\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eSusanne Sachsse – vox\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eGwendolyn Sanford – vox, experimental vox\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eGreg Saunier – vox, guitar, bass guitar, cymbals, synth, sampler\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eAngela Seo – vox, piano, harmonium, gongs, percussion, bass synth\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eJamie Stewart – vox, bass guitar, guitar, organ, drum box, autoharp, viola, stylophone, xylophone, bajo quinto, mandolin,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003esynth, banjo, percussion, sampler\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eTwin Shadow – vox, saxophone\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eSharon Van Etten – vox\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eChelsea Wolfe – vox\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eRecorded by Jamie Stewart at NURSE.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eAdditional Recording by Angus Andrew, Paul Beauchamp, Ben Chisholm, Dirk Dresselhaus, Dan Duszynski, Haley Fohr, Justin Higgins, Brandon Jay, George Lewis Jr., Owen Pallett \u0026amp; Greg Saunier.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eProduced by Lawrence English, Greg Saunier \u0026amp; Angela Seo.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eMastered by Alan Douches at West West Side Music.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eDesign and Packaging Layout by Janelle Abad \u0026amp; Xiu Xiu.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003c\/blockquote\u003e","brand":"Polyvinyl Records","offers":[{"title":"Early Bird Vinyl 2xLP (Half Scarlet\/Half Cream)","offer_id":67981887701299,"sku":"PRC-426LP-EB","price":32.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Vinyl 2xLP (Cream \u0026 Scarlet)","offer_id":50818999222579,"sku":"PRC-426LP","price":22.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50818999255347,"sku":"PRC-426CD","price":9.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":52708193075507,"sku":"PRC-426DIGITAL","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0881\/7655\/8387\/files\/XiuXiu_OHNO_EarlyBird_LP_1_7650cdf4-f8b1-4ca1-ad61-260670d0c75c.jpg?v=1794566407"},{"product_id":"rodrigo-amarante-drama","title":"Rodrigo Amarante - Drama","description":"\u003cp\u003eLos Angeles, March 18, 2021\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI was told there was a bio written for me, to promote my new record \u003ci\u003eDrama\u003c\/i\u003e, and that I should review it. It wasn’t news from outer space but it caught me off guard, like a friendly dental appointment reminder. My line of work involves cringeworthy tasks at times, at least this was one I could do in private, secretly. But the tone, a sort of resumé oozing enthusiasm, reminded me of my early days of crossing the US border coming from Brazil for hire. I was smiley and unintentionally talkative, just very friendly, thinking I could charm the officer out of inviting me to a further exchange in an adjacent room. My jolliness only served the purpose of displaying my fear of law enforcement, the fragility of my immigration status and instability of my line of work. I would be wearing my reading glasses.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOfficer:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003ci\u003eWhat kind of music?\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMe:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003ci\u003eOh, well, how should I put it? ...You see officer, I'm from Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, and I grew up in a samba school – a school in the sense of a school of fish, you know, because we parade during carnaval, kinda like fish do, all up against each other going whatever the others do. A strange thing that in English they’re the same words isn’t it, a collective for fish and students? What I mean is that this school isn’t an educational institution, although it was a school to me in that sense as well. In any case, to answer your question, my music isn’t typically Brazilian per se but that sound I grew up with comes through even when I’m writing in a different style, say a waltz, those polyrhythms, jazzy chords, they sneak in. The thing is, (sigh) …even though I loved bossa-nova and samba as a kid, I really wanted to be Johnny Marr when I first picked up the guitar, from The Smiths? You know The Smiths, officer? \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI would give the officer no option other than to despise me and hand me over to his colleague with the rubber gloves. Here's how this exchange currently plays out:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOfficer:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003ci\u003eWhat kind of music?\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMe:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003ci\u003eJazz.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOfficer:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003ci\u003eAlright.\u003c\/i\u003e (Stamp)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI eventually stopped smiling at border patrol officers and TSA personnel like Alice arriving in Wonderland. I can’t blame them for considering it suspicious behavior to be in excellent spirits after 19 hours strapped in a cold barrel with tins of dog food, not to mention the bouquet. I should have listened to my father on that one. \"Be straight, they don't go on hugging the milkmen like we do.\" We didn't have milkmen, my dad didn’t say quite that. Milkmen are a thing of old American films for me, but thinking in English brings the target language’s imagery, it’s a funny thing. In any case, the bio felt to me a bit like the smiley period of border crossing. I’ll give it to you:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“You may know Rodrigo Amarante already. You may have heard “Tuyo,” his theme tune to the Netflix drama \u003ci\u003eNarcos\u003c\/i\u003e, or the Little Joy album, recorded with Fab Moretti and Binki Shapiro, you might have noted his name among the credits on songs by Gal Costa, Norah Jones and Gilberto Gil; or perhaps you saw him play live with Brazilian samba big band Orquestra Imperial, or with Rio rockers Los Hermanos; you really should have heard his debut album, \u003ci\u003eCavalo,\u003c\/i\u003e released in 2014. You may think you know Rodrigo Amarante already, but \u003ci\u003eDrama\u003c\/i\u003e, his second solo album, is going to introduce a whole new level of confusion to the mix.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI get it, how else does one introduce someone in my position, promoting new material with a considerable potential of anonymity, other than listing their most notable accomplishments? A bit of a general’s chest plate there but, alright.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1976, Rodrigo points to two incidents in his past that fed directly into the recordings: a childhood illness that makes him appreciate the beauty of the second chance; and that moment when his father tried to prepare his son for the real world – eliminating all the drama and sensitivity from the young man’s life – by cutting off his long hair.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe haircut, I must say, wasn't exactly forceful, I wasn't held by elders of the clan in tears or anything. I wanted to be what my dad wanted me to be, and he had a point: the bangs were too sweet and the streets were making a mess out of me weekly. He had my consent. I did think of that haircut when I decided the record was called \u003ci\u003eDrama\u003c\/i\u003e, what I believe that moment represents. That word was a trigger – the same word in Portuguese – and I had to embrace it, since I’m carrying it anyway. \u003ci\u003eDrama\u003c\/i\u003e was what had to go, or be concealed. Truth is, I hated the haircut, I learned how to look tough but I felt ugly.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNow, I did mention these two events when talking about making the record and it’s true they’re both significant to me, but in different contexts, we’ve got to slow this down here. For one, mentioning a childhood illness in passing is no pickup line. What is this, a pitch for charity? This has to feel like an invitation, not an invoice. I’ve got to cut that out. For another, nothing really “feeds directly into the recording”; that’s precisely the point in calling it \u003ci\u003eDrama\u003c\/i\u003e. Between events I’ve lived and songs I write there is me, the middlemen; a corrupt reporter with tampered evidence, a censor really, even if unwittingly. We talk about connecting the dots but I think of memory more as a coloring book.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe point is, no matter how genuine I strive to be, there is always a tale I’m hung up on. The beauty and humor in that, the release in playing it out without prejudice, embracing the incoherence and hyperbole of memory instead of forging a reasonable amalgam; that is a wonderful instrument, one filled with music. It feels relaxing to abandon the illusion of verisimilitude and bring forth the confusion and contradiction of what I have to work with, these tales. That is the sound of \u003ci\u003eDrama\u003c\/i\u003e. Dressing up as means to reveal, rather than dressing down, to conceal. Tickling memory into confession, seeing through the eye holes of a mask. This feels like a concept I followed but that isn’t so. It came as a posthumous realization, as it often happens with me. These songs were the instruments to realize it, not the other way around.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNow that I’ve let it out, had a couple of drags, I feel more at ease. Besides, I was told that something should be said about the music itself, how it sounds, and that is not my area of expertise, so I’m going to hand back to the biographer now and try not to interrupt again...\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eDrama\u003c\/i\u003e began life at the end of 2018, with a session involving Rodrigo’s regular band - “Lucky” Paul Taylor on drums, bassist Todd Dahlhoff, Andres Renteria on congas, and Amarante on guitar – resulting in four tracks – “Maré,” “Tango,” “Tanto,” “Tao” – that would make the final cut. An upbeat, seemingly happy song with darker aspects hidden beneath the surface, “Maré” is based on Spanish proverb: \u003ci\u003ethe tide will fetch what the ebb brings\u003c\/i\u003e. “Things that arrive in your hand by destiny, they are just as easily swept away,” explains the writer.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Tango,” though, may be the key to the theme of the album: Rodrigo falls in love on the dance floor, the lovers sway clumsily until they adjust their balance, become familiar with the other’s steps and, at last, become one. The melody is buttery and the arrangement is accommodating, but don’t be taken in. It’s a song about a relationship disguised as a partner dancing lesson, a song about needing support, struggling with voicing that, and eventually finding it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlso dating from the 2018 sessions, “Tao” is a different beast entirely. “It’s the ridiculousness of the human condition. Suffering comes from being attached to something, I’m like: “OK, detach, that’s all good... but there’s this girl, I can’t get her out of my head.” It's a disguised comedy, very much inspired by Alan Watts, the Taoist philosopher. I would have never written this song without his sense of humor.” Midway through, however, the groove kicks in and you’re in the studio with The Rolling Stones in 1971, their brass players, Bobby Keys and Jim Price (both played, like most of the horns, by David Ralicke), cooking up a mesmerizing gumbo.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Tara,” meanwhile, feels like something Astrud Gilberto might have sung at the height of bossa nova’s global popularity. There’s a beautiful string arrangement, upright bass, a smooth tenor sax reminiscent of Stan Getz, but with the twist of the big-band-era muted horns on the chorus, nearly self-deprecating, as if mocking such idealized infatuation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWriting and recording continued through 2019. Some songs were pulled out from the back of drawers, more ideas came anew. “”The End,” I think I started writing that 10 years ago. Other songs went into the trash bin, but I’ll be sniffing about in there for the next record. “Sky Beneath” was a quick one because of the emotional state I was in, it was one of those. I wrote that as a folk song, arranged it with the African polyrhythm, then the Central America guitar section, then violins... A friend told me it’s like that “I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing” commercial for Coca-Cola. I absolutely disagree.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“I Can’t Wait” took on the eerie qualities of a John Barry theme, while still ruminating on the power of love. To be free is to belong. “That song will throw some people off. There are records that are like a box of attempts at the hit single – some great records are like that – but every song is trying to achieve the same kind of thing. I admire such focus but I simply can't do that. And now I’ve said that, “I Can’t Wait” will definitely be a single.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn early 2020, with the album not quite ready, lockdown hit Los Angeles and Rodrigo found himself alone, adding overdubs – inexplicably, he’s not overly proud of his horn playing on “Eu Com Você” – and mixing the completed tracks with Noah Georgeson, though the two were never in the same room. Unsurprisingly, isolation dictated the sound of the album. “Lockdown and limitation have produced some great ideas. I started the album wanting to be the man I was supposed to be when my father tried to empty my head of all my drama. I planned to focus on rhythm and abandon those rich Brazilian harmonic traditions, the rich chord progressions and modulations I inherited. Instead, I embraced the complications I’ve inherited.” \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eDrama\u003c\/i\u003e closes with the piano on “The End.” ‘To live is to fall.’ After all the emotional upheavals the singer has put his cast through, is this some kind of farewell to this mortal coil? “Everything furthers,” says Amarante, and adds: “Staring at the absurd while remaining kind, being open to the gifts of confusion; that's why we create these tools that are stories and songs, to help us see each other.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo be fair, given how delicious a squid popsicle can get, this bio wasn’t that bad. It had clever moments and it was quite sensitive to the material at times. Remember though, if any quotes stood out to you, that wasn't me simply talking to you now, but a pre-recorded message. Just a heads up.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI dearly hope you enjoy these songs.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRodrigo Amarante\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cblockquote\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eWritten and Arranged by Rodrigo Amarante.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eProduced by R. Amarante.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eMixed by Noah Georgeson.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eMastered by Heba Kadry.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eRecorded by R. Amarante at Rodrigo’s.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eLive Band Sessions Recorded at MCJ Studio by Mario Caldato Jr. and Jonathan Maia.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eAdditional Engineering on “The End” by Samur Khouja.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eCover Design by R. Amarante.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eLayout by Claire Hungerford.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eCover Photography by Frederik Jacobi.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003c\/blockquote\u003e","brand":"Polyvinyl Records","offers":[{"title":"Vinyl (Half Clear Olive \/ Half White)","offer_id":50888633516339,"sku":"PRC-422LP-EB","price":20.25,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Vinyl (Clear Olive)","offer_id":52708192321843,"sku":"PRC-422LP-RETAIL","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50819000434995,"sku":"PRC-422CD","price":9.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Tape (White)","offer_id":50819000467763,"sku":"PRC-422TAPE","price":9.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":52708192354611,"sku":"PRC-422DIGITAL","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0881\/7655\/8387\/files\/e6c5e2357dfea74373441735823e87cc47b02190_3d295a1f151d06d4fe5d817fc4af87ab6699ea35_photo_jpg.jpg?v=1735936819"},{"product_id":"good-morning-barnyard","title":"Good Morning - Barnyard","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood Morning\u003c\/strong\u003e are rulebreakers. Not in a sexy, flamboyant way — more in a casual, resigned kind of way. Accidental and incidental rulebreakers. They tune their guitars weirdly and make albums shorter than some peoples’ EPs; their career has progressed in fits and starts, some years bringing an abundance of music and others bringing nothing at all. They are friends first, band second, business third, often in spite of function, and often at their own expense; they choose the wrong singles, and insist on doing everything, from posters to merch to album covers to music videos, by themselves, often painstakingly. These things don’t break the moral and social rules rock stars are so fond of toeing — of course, Good Morning are decidedly not rock stars — but they are the kinds of things you’re not “supposed” to do if you want any kind of success or stability in music; still, every time the machinations of the industry have zigged, Good Morning have zagged.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith the creation and release of their sixth album, \u003ci\u003eBarnyard\u003c\/i\u003e, the band, comprising Stefan Blair and Liam Parsons, are breaking a couple more quiet, self-imposed rules. For the first time in a long time, a Good Morning record was made with the help of an outside engineer, and will be released on a label that’s not operated by a friend. That may seem small potatoes, but for a duo often hell-bent on keeping things firmly in the fold this widening of scope to take in outside influence, and American outside influence at that, is a very big deal. Other artists may trade in “eras”, grand visions, aesthetic reinventions, but that’s not really Good Morning’s deal. It’s probably why people like them so much.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt’s also probably why, after many many years of being a band, \u003ci\u003eBarnyard\u003c\/i\u003e is decidedly Good Morning’s best album to date — the latest result in a process of patient refinement that began seven years ago with the 2014 release of \u003ci\u003eShawcross\u003c\/i\u003e, and will probably keep going with each successive album. Thoughtful, catchy, idiosyncratic, and fucking long — ‘fucking long’ here meaning 35 minutes, aka average album length, but nearly twice the average length of a Good Morning record — it is all the things one might love about Good Morning, this time around presented with the fat trimmed and the edges sharpened, loose ends tied and ducks all in a row.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGetting here has been a long process, and a little winding. Good Morning were, in a sense, born out of economy: Liam and Stefan split the cost of a Fostex tape recorder, and with said tape proceeded to make 2014’s \u003ci\u003eShawcross\u003c\/i\u003e. Written “at the end of a long stint of doing nothing at all” and “kind half-assed”, the record — seven songs of ambling, sun-kissed indie pop — now bears the weight of a classic in the minds of many fans, and, as such, is something of a problem child in Stefan and Liam’s life. Its follow-up, 2016’s \u003ci\u003eGlory\u003c\/i\u003e, is a little more representative of where the band’s sound would eventually go, slightly darker and slightly weirder in its tone, all while being ruthlessly hooky. (These records also bear the unfortunate cross of having had the vast majority of their royalties thieved by the band’s former label — hence the aforementioned ‘no labels’ rule — and as such are still kinda in disputed territory.)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e2018’s \u003ci\u003ePrize \/\/ Reward\u003c\/i\u003e, released on friend-and-live-bandmate Joe Alexander’s record label Bedroom Suck Records, was and remains Good Morning’s only album to be recorded over a long period of time, as opposed to in one short spell. It is looser and slightly more chaotic than other Good Morning releases, its songs liable to unspool at any moment. With the benefit of hindsight, it’s as significant and enjoyable as any other Good Morning record. At the time, though, its protracted process of creation and release left the band feeling tapped out, a little sick of itself. The solution came in the form of 2019’s double-header of \u003ci\u003eThe Option\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eBasketball Breakups\u003c\/i\u003e, twinned records released six months apart. Made quickly and with a full band for the first time — the former in Melbourne, the latter in a friend’s studio in Matsumoto, Japan -— the albums reclaimed the fun and friendship crucial to the band’s ability to function. Both records are immediate and propulsive, each comprising songs that are fun to play and fun to see live and featuring goofy production choices that border on the avant-garde: barking dogs, wind chimes, and weird synth solos abound.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBetween each record, Good Morning have released two-track singles: 2015’s “A Vessel” and “Radiovoice”, and “On The Street” and “You”; 2016’s “Step Aside” and “Oppsie”; 2019’s “Take It Easy For Me Stranger” and “Boy, I’m Just A Loser For Your Love”; and, most recently, 2020’s “Mollyduker” and “Keep It”, the band’s first release for Polyvinyl Record Co. (USA\/ROW) and Good Morning Music Company Worldwide (AU\/NZ). These two-tracks, despite always conforming to a specific format in a way Good Morning \u003ci\u003ealbums\u003c\/i\u003e rarely do, have provided a space for Stefan and Liam to experiment with style and tone — among these songs are drone synths, ambient sketches, and country ballads.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis history, as embodied, rich and pockmarked as it is, converges on \u003ci\u003eBarnyard\u003c\/i\u003e. In late 2019, after the release of \u003ci\u003eThe Option\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eBasketball Breakups\u003c\/i\u003e, with a lengthy American tour looming, Good Morning decided to go back to basics — to record as a duo again, as they had on \u003ci\u003eShawcross\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eGlory\u003c\/i\u003e. Over the course of the year, they demoed any number of songs in their Collingwood studio space, meeting up every Tuesday to write and record together as they always had. In November, as their American tour wrapped up, the pair decamped in Chicago, to properly record the demos they had amassed at Wilco’s famed studio, The Loft.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt The Loft, Good Morning found not only gear — more than they could ever want or need, with much of it having been played on some of their favourite records ever — but also a kindred spirit in Tom Schick, the studio’s in-house engineer. In the initial recording sessions, Tom was a guiding force, encouraging the band to actually record their demos instead of just trying out gear or talking shit for hours on end; as their time together grew, he became a close accomplice, the first non-friend the band had ever brought in to help them record and, as such, a significant force in the outcome of\u003ci\u003e Barnyard\u003c\/i\u003e. The band left The Loft with the intention of returning the next year and finishing it, a plan that, due to Covid, never came to fruition. What you now hear on \u003ci\u003eBarnyard\u003c\/i\u003e is exactly what was laid down in that first spell of recording. In a sense, the universe’s dampening of the band’s plans forced them to stick to at least one of their rules — to only make records that were recorded in one quick rush, in one geographical location. The album is better for it: not overworked or overproofed, these 12 songs feel comfortable with themselves, content to exist as they are, rather than striving for something they’ll never be.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDespite how quietly epochal \u003ci\u003eBarnyard\u003c\/i\u003e is — a milestone in the history of Good Morning — it’s also the band’s most meditative record, thoughtful and careful in its evocations. In the spirit of “Mollyduker” and “Keep It”, in many ways tone- and style-setting preludes to this album, \u003ci\u003eBarnyard\u003c\/i\u003e is world-weary, concerned with the state of things in a loose, unfocussed sort of way. In other words, like we all are — frustrated both with the way things are and with everyone’s general inability to fix any of the many issues endemic to our society. “Burning”, a piano ballad sung by Liam that bears the distinctive patina of 70s rock, addresses the increasingly-visceral threat of global warming, its lyrics written in freezing-cold Chicago about the bushfires raging back home in Australia. “Big Wig”, sung by Stefan, addresses the generally useless and pigheaded bigwigs who parade through the music industry and through life. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn spite of the appropriately bleak vibe, these songs feature some of Good Morning’s catchiest and most distinctive productions. The spritely groove and easygoing harmonies of “Depends On What I Know” belie its frustration-ridden lyrics; the gripping, awesome propulsion of “Country” persists in spite of its appeal to return to a simpler, easier way of being. The 12 tracks that comprise \u003ci\u003eBarnyard\u003c\/i\u003e are melodically and structurally unimpeachable — just wonderful, appealing rock songs that are never laboured with overbearing production choices or self-serious tone, even when the content regards a world in decline.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThose seeking grand reinvention or earth-shaking hubris in \u003ci\u003eBarnyard\u003c\/i\u003e will come up short. This is an album of good, well-made, finely-written songs. It is an album notable for its purity and coherence of vision, but not by any means a concept album; it is a record significant in the band’s history, but not one with such self-importance that it would consider itself historically significant for all. That is likely what those drawn to it will love about it. Barnyard is not too little and not too much. It’s just right — just Good Morning. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cblockquote\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eRecorded at The Loft, Chicago, IL, USA\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eProduced by Good Morning with help from Tom Schick.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eMixed and engineered by Tom Schick.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eMastered by Fred Kevorkian.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eAll instruments played and sung by Good Morning except for...\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eVibraslap on ‘Burning’ slapped by Joe Alexander.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eSaxophone on ‘Big Wig \/\/ Small Dog’ saxed by Glenn Blair.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eBarnyard construction by Good Morning, Eva Christoff and Tom Muntisov over a painting by Paul Ceraso.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eBarnyard denim lettering stitched by Georgia McGirr.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003ePhotography by Robert ‘Squid’ Collins w\/ Aidan McDonald.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003c\/blockquote\u003e","brand":"Polyvinyl Records","offers":[{"title":"Dinked Exclusive Vinyl (Glow-in-the-Dark)","offer_id":67982062453043,"sku":"PRC-9581LP-DINKED","price":21.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Vinyl (Seafoam)","offer_id":50819002859827,"sku":"PRC-440LP-RETAIL","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50819002925363,"sku":"PRC-440CD","price":9.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":52708191830323,"sku":"PRC-440DIGITAL","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0881\/7655\/8387\/files\/barnyard_glow-square.jpg?v=1794573276"},{"product_id":"the-dodos-grizzly-peak","title":"The Dodos - Grizzly Peak","description":"\u003cp\u003eFor over 15 years, \u003cstrong\u003eThe Dodos\u003c\/strong\u003e have been careening, almost recklessly, towards some perfect ideal of how The Dodos should sound. First formed with the intention of creating a record that felt and sounded how the inside of a guitar might, the band have spent the intervening years sprinting towards that platonic ideal. The propulsion of that chase has always been palpable, even in the duo’s strangest, quietest moments — a gasping thrill conjured as if metallurgically from the interplay between virtuosically fingerpicked guitar and bracingly intricate drumming. Now, after so long, finally: \u003ci\u003eGrizzly Peak\u003c\/i\u003e. The eighth album by Meric Long and Logan Kroeber still plays as if in freefall, but things are different this time. Meditative and sometimes painful in its emotional excavation, over the course of ten anthemic, gorgeously-rendered tracks, \u003ci\u003eGrizzly Peak\u003c\/i\u003e reveals itself as that place Long and Kroeber were always desperately trying to find.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs he was toying with the beginnings of what would become \u003ci\u003eGrizzly Peak\u003c\/i\u003e, Long began to feel the early twinges of arthritis in his fingers. Anyone familiar with Long’s style — an aggressive, rhythmic, weighted approach to fingerpicking developed and perfected over the past 15 years — will understand that this is akin to a runner feeling their legs wear down beyond repair, or the lungs of a brass player beginning to atrophy: an unfair, natural decay that bears immense, life-changing weight. “Guitar has always been my ticket out from feeling worthless, insecure — perhaps I never quite grew out of that moment in my adolescence where I discovered playing the guitar made me feel better than what my mind or others told me,” Long says. “It also became such a huge part of identity, that I probably latched on to it a little too much, and I guess feeling the beginnings of arthritis was sort of a sign of the impermanence of that identity. If I can't play the guitar anymore — the way that, at least in my own mind, defined me so much — then what else am I?”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat driving force, then, animates \u003ci\u003eGrizzly Peak\u003c\/i\u003e. Although The Dodos have always been a band enamored, somewhat, with the idea of what it means to be ‘The Dodos’ — a duo for whom their own music provides inspiration enough — \u003ci\u003eGrizzly Peak\u003c\/i\u003e is, perhaps, the first Dodos record to look back, to take stock of Long and Kroeber’s life as one entity. (How dryly funny, and how fittingly literary, that a band in seemingly constant motion would find its ideal form to be in looking to the past.) On the wistful, gut-wrenching opener “Annie,” Long intones, in that anthemic, ever-familiar tone: “The show is about to start.” It’s an overture to the opera of The Dodos’ life, a warning and an invitation that the music enclosed therein will be challenging, true, and, befitting a band who have built such an edifice over the past near-two-decades, incredibly hard-won.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Annie,” which starts small and builds until it’s one of The Dodos’ brightest, most bombastic songs ever, is a kind of statement of intent for \u003ci\u003eGrizzly Peak\u003c\/i\u003e. “Annie,” all cavernous boom and warm, enveloping melody, reaches that place of what the inside of a guitar might sound like, wholly and triumphantly. At the same time, the song introduces themes Long grapples with over the course of the entire album: forgiveness, regret, shame, and, above all, profound, enduring love. It roils with the discontent of knowing things could have been different: “Annie, can you forgive me? We were going to ride it til the end…” You can feel the physical weight of the song’s lyrics in the production — a result of Long’s edict that there would be only physical instruments on \u003ci\u003eGrizzly Peak\u003c\/i\u003e. “I started to appreciate again the physicality of the things being hit, actual vibrations of strings, drumheads. No matter how hard you hit a synth it won't give that impact, and impact is one of those things that's really tied to the sound of this band,” he says. “One of my early production principles for this record was that everything had to be played on a real instrument. I picked up a baby grand piano and put it in my living room which is way too small for it — I can't believe my family let me do that.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eComplex, heart-on-sleeve reckoning — with selfhood as well as relationships with others — recurs throughout \u003ci\u003eGrizzly Peak\u003c\/i\u003e. “Stop running away while standing still\/You’re looking away from what’s been here,” Long sings on the spare, almost funky “Sunrise\/Sunset”; “I need to know that you want what you have,” he levels on “Quiet Voices.” These songs are emotionally generous but resolute in their aim to pull apart even the most tightly-coiled of emotions. Long says no stone was left unturned in his quest to make \u003ci\u003eGrizzly Peak\u003c\/i\u003e sound like the inside of a guitar, and the same feels true of the record’s emotional content; this is The Dodos laid bare, with nothing to hide.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBefitting a record that hits so close to The Dodos’ career-long goal, \u003ci\u003eGrizzly Peak\u003c\/i\u003e also serves as a love letter to the fans who have devoted their hearts to Long and Kroeber’s music. “I feel a huge debt of gratitude to our fans or anyone that paid attention enough to notice,” Long says. “I really want to say thank you; going back to our original intention and trying to perfect this sound really seemed like the best way to express that gratitude. It was a huge motivation in working through this stuff.” In its content, too, \u003ci\u003eGrizzly Peak\u003c\/i\u003e seems to speak to the lifeline music can give someone. “Sustainer,” a highlight of the record, puts it plainly: “The song will be my sustainer.” This is an album intensely in love with music as a life force, as a raison d'etre for so many of us in the world. “I never had much to say, but I said it with a guitar,” Long sings on “With A Guitar.” Years later, we’re still listening. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cblockquote\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:rgb(230,76,76);\"\u003eWritten and Produced by Meric Long\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:rgb(230,76,76);\"\u003eMixed by Beau Sorenson\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:rgb(230,76,76);\"\u003eRecorded at Bartons Den and Tiny Telephone Oakland\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:rgb(230,76,76);\"\u003eFinal mixing at New, Improved Recording\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:rgb(230,76,76);\"\u003eMastered by Sarah Register\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eAll instruments played and sung by \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:rgb(230,76,76);\"\u003eThe Dodos\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003e except for...\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:rgb(230,76,76);\"\u003eCello and Violin on tracks 1, 2, 3, 5 performed by Lewis and Graham Patzner\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:rgb(230,76,76);\"\u003eCover Art by Michelle McNeil\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:rgb(230,76,76);\"\u003eLayout\/Design by Ishaq Fahim\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003c\/blockquote\u003e","brand":"Polyvinyl Records","offers":[{"title":"Early Bird Vinyl (Light Pink) w\/ Tab Sheet + Signed Art Print + Sticker","offer_id":67981032587571,"sku":"PRC-442LP-EB","price":22.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Vinyl (Light Pink)","offer_id":50818998731059,"sku":"PRC-442LP","price":15.75,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":52708191764787,"sku":"PRC-442CD","price":6.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":52708191797555,"sku":"PRC-442DIGITAL","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0881\/7655\/8387\/files\/thedodos-grizzlypeak_LP-eb-1-square-disc.jpg?v=1794554595"},{"product_id":"pedro-the-lion-havasu","title":"Pedro The Lion - Havasu","description":"\u003cp\u003eLake Havasu is a community of winding hillside roads, launched in the 1960s alongside a brick-for-brick rebuild of the original London Bridge. \"It's this very synthetic, gimmicky place set in this soulful, desolate landscape,\" laughs \u003cstrong\u003ePedro the Lion\u003c\/strong\u003e's David Bazan, who moved to the Arizona city for one year in seventh grade. Bazan collected his earliest childhood experiences for 2019's \u003cem\u003ePhoenix\u003c\/em\u003e, the prolific artist's celebrated return to the Pedro moniker and the first in a planned series of five records chronicling his past homes. To write its sequel, Bazan traveled to Havasu four times over several years, driving past his junior high campus, a magical skating rink, and other nostalgic locations that evoked feelings long suppressed. \"An intersection I hadn't remembered for 30 years would trigger a flood of hidden memories,\" he says. \"I was there to soak in it as much as possible.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDriving the inscrutable loops of Havasu's lakeside, Bazan listened through an audiobook of Tom Petty's biography, eventually dialoguing with Petty's voice in his mind. A revelation from the book–that Petty subconsciously wrote the song \"Wildflowers\" as an act of kindness toward himself–inspired Bazan to approach his own work with radical generosity toward his young self. \"I wanted to be there for that kid,\" he offers. \"That twelve year old still needs parenting, and still needs to process.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo revisit his past with openness, Bazan modified harmful work habits he'd accepted as necessary. That meant doing away with deadlines, and accumulating moments of play as he felt moved to–\"Rather than squeezing stones every single time. I'm on a slow journey away from that,\" he clarifies. As he worked through the music that became \u003cem\u003eHavasu\u003c\/em\u003e, flexibility and curiosity informed the arrangements. Bazan began writing on a simple synthesizer and drum machine setup. He detoured to a more elaborate assortment of analog electronic equipment, then woodshed his original two-handed keyboard arrangements on fingerpicked acoustic guitar.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eConcurrently relearning his catalog for a weekly series of livestream concerts also renewed his gratitude toward songwriting. \"I was trying to evaluate what I have to show for 20 years of kicking my own ass,\" Bazan quips about the strenuousness of full-time touring. \"But the garden of my songs is what I've been building. It doesn't have to be an ego test.\" Approaching his discography with appreciation reconciled cognitive dissonance about the music of his childhood, which Bazan had dismissed as cheesy. \"As a kid, that Richard Marx song would come on and I would swoon. I've been working my whole life to pretend that wasn't there, and I wanted to honor the sappy, emotional kid that I was. It helped me see myself,\" he admits.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen he entered the studio with co-producer and engineer Andy D. Park (who worked in the same capacity on Phoenix), Bazan planned to make a desolate, desert-informed record. But the duo quickly realized a rock configuration closer to Pedro's classic sound would convey the landscape and stories best. Bazan switched to a Les Paul, which brought smoothness and linearity; though he'd planned to use a drum machine, he laid down scratch drum kit and bass as an experiment. Listening back the next day, those initial rhythm section takes had a sense of joy and ease that augmented the record's themes of psychic healing. \"First Drum Set,\" which faithfully chronicles Bazan's lifesaving switch from clarinet to drums, builds the explosive jubilation of musical self-discovery into triumphant fills, like a throbbing heartbeat overflowing with love. \"Teenage Sequencer\" takes on the rattling anxiety of mind-body disconnect, using trepidatious bass, vacillating guitar slides and hopeful tambourine to evoke the crushed-out ups and downs of the mutable edge of thirteen. \"There goes nature, pulling me along like a sequencer,\" sings Bazan, wondering: \"Will I always be a teenager now?\" And on \"Making the Most Of It,\" stuttering hi-hat adorns downtempo, arpeggiated guitar, adding playfulness to a reckoning with concealed emotion. \"I can go along to get along, but let me know when I can quit making the most of it,\" Bazan shrugs. Yet the contrasting optimism of the music reflects an imperative to communicate feelings both light and heavy: to break through the scar tissue of tender memory and find peace.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThough Bazan wrote, arranged, and performed most instruments himself–as is characteristic of most of his work, solo and with Pedro the Lion–several key collaborators helped him find the self-accepting tenderness needed for \u003cem\u003eHavasu\u003c\/em\u003e. Pedro live drummer Sean T. Lane makes appearances on every track, but on a self-constructed noisemaking instrument called \"the bike.\" It's composed of various metal objects and strings mounted on a bicycle frame, rigged with contact mics and run through a drone-accentuating pedalboard. \"It can be percussive, it can be ambient. It's a real nightmare machine. It's just great,\" Bazan enthuses, highlighting its crucially menacing counterpoint to the otherwise \"wistful, melancholy, guilty pleasure romcom\" progression of \"Own Valentine.\" A warm moment exploring his synth setup with longtime collaborator Andy Fitts led to the insistent new wave sound of \"Too Much.\" And on album opener and cinematic scene-setter \"Don't Wanna Move,\" a riff appears that was first devised by Pedro guitarist Erik Walters and used on Phoenix's closer. \"I was psyched to open this record with it,\" Bazan says. \"I'm trying to have a flow between the records, so if people want to engage with that, there's something there.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThough the next three albums in the series are not fully written, Bazan currently understands \u003cem\u003ePhoenix\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eHavasu\u003c\/em\u003e together as a completed exposition in a traditional three-act structure. \"I want to paint a picture of how my family and parents and everyone I love got coopted by nationalistic, authoritarian religion,\" he lays out. \"I'm planting the seeds for that, and my own culpability is part of it.\" Though these careful compositions pave the way for darker stories in later acts, Bazan resolutely emphasizes the curative nature of returning to Havasu, mentally and musically. \"It gave me the ability to make vulnerable choices, and connect with a part of my younger self that I didn't want to turn my back on,\" he suggests. \"I worked through a lot of self-judgment, and was kinder to myself on this record than I have been before in any songs.\" The result is an open-hearted acknowledgment of shame and elation both, spaciously but delicately arranged in affirmation of the nurturing those feelings deserve – even if the kid in need of validation has long since grown up and moved away.\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eProduced by Andy D. Park \u0026amp; David Bazan\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eAll songs written \u0026amp; arranged by David Bazan (except: track 1 music written with Erik Walters \u0026amp; track 2 music written with Andy Fitts)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eAll instruments \u0026amp; vocals by David Bazan (except: percussion on tracks 3, 4, \u0026amp; 8 by Sean Lane \u0026amp; keys on track 5 \u0026amp; additional keys on tracks 4 \u0026amp; 8 by Andy D. Park)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eRecorded by Andy D. Park at The Crumb\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eMixed by Andy D. 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Chords push and pull like the twists and turns of the Saturday night Okusami revisits; “I’m feeling so alive with my heart open wide,” she sings in an in-the-round vocal coda, just after blazing through an eviscerating solo. \u003ci\u003eThings I Never Said\u003c\/i\u003e engineer and bassist Eva Lawitts played a five-string bass on “From the Van” and on “Stuck,” amplifying the sound of two of the album’s most massive tracks. The latter of those songs swirls around a detuned guitar climb, using layers of fuzz, palm muted riffs and sludgy, grooving drums to blast through the feelings of stagnancy Okusami outlines: “I feel heavier than I used to,” she deadpans, sinking in to the parallel heaviness of the recording.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn lead single “Bad Brain Daze,” which busts through the hazy pallor of unavoidable anxiety with stop-start guitar rhythms, telephonic synths and juxtapositionally cheerful melodies, Okusami recruited labelmate and recent tourmate Jeff Rosenstock for saxophone. Of their 2021 gigs together, Okusami says: “It felt like going on tour with a bunch of friends. 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I had been split through the forehead between the eyebrows, a wound that was to throb with pain whenever I came into contact with a human being.”\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp style=\"margin-left:40px;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:#000000;\"\u003e -Osamu Dazai\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp style=\"margin-left:40px;\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cblockquote\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:hsl(0, 75%, 60%);\"\u003eProduced by Angela Seo\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:hsl(0, 75%, 60%);\"\u003eRecorded \u0026amp; Arranged by Jamie Stewart at NURSE, Los Angeles, CA\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:hsl(0, 75%, 60%);\"\u003eMixed by Lawrence English at Negative Space, Brisbane, QLD\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:hsl(0, 75%, 60%);\"\u003eMastered by Alan Douches at West WestSide Mastering, Cornwall on Hudson, NY\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:hsl(0, 75%, 60%);\"\u003eLyrics by David Kendrick and Jamie Stewart\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:hsl(0, 75%, 60%);\"\u003eDesign by Janelle Abad\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:hsl(0, 75%, 60%);\"\u003eDavid Kendrick - percussion, drums\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:hsl(0, 75%, 60%);\"\u003eAngela Seo - vox, piano, gongs, no-input mixer, percussion\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:hsl(0, 75%, 60%);\"\u003eJamie Stewart - vox, synths, harmonium, percussion, electronic percussion, double reed flute, found objects\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:hsl(0, 75%, 60%);\"\u003ewith very special guests:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:hsl(0, 75%, 60%);\"\u003eEzra Buchla - viola\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:hsl(0, 75%, 60%);\"\u003eBen Chisolm - synth, piano, electronic percussion \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:hsl(0, 75%, 60%);\"\u003eCharlie Looker - choral vox\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:hsl(0, 75%, 60%);\"\u003ePatrick Shiroishi - saxophones\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:hsl(0, 75%, 60%);\"\u003eIan Wellman - field recordings \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:hsl(0, 75%, 60%);\"\u003eadditional instrumentation:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:hsl(0, 75%, 60%);\"\u003eviolins - Andrea Kopecká, Radka Navrátilová\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:hsl(0, 75%, 60%);\"\u003eviolas - Katrina Musilová, Marie Vlčková\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:hsl(0, 75%, 60%);\"\u003ecellos - Martina Čermáková, Jiřina Hájková\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:hsl(0, 75%, 60%);\"\u003edouble bass - 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The trio, featuring Gus Lobban, Jamie Bulled, and Sarah Midori Perry, started crafting their unique blend of electronic pop music \u003c\/span\u003eafter school friends Gus \u0026amp; Jamie met Sarah on the internet. \u003cspan style=\"color:#000000;\"\u003eWith Perry’s unique singing style (featuring lyrics in both Japanese and English), the band went on to write influential tracks such as “Sick Beat,” “I’d Rather Sleep,” “Pocket Crocodile,” and others that were inspired by J-pop, dancehall, and video game music.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:#000000;\"\u003eThe \u003ci\u003eIntro Bonito\u003c\/i\u003e mixtape paved the way for Kero Kero Bonito’s rise from underground glitch pop wizards to a monumental act within the PC Music scene and beyond. Since its release, the trio has built up a devoted fanbase across the globe, racked up over 500 million streams \u0026amp; video views across multiple albums, EPs, and singles, collaborated with numerous high-profile artists \u003c\/span\u003e(e.g. 100 gecs, Porter Robinson, Felicita, Soccer Mommy, Ashnikko, etc)\u003cspan style=\"color:#000000;\"\u003e, and performed at festivals around the world.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Polyvinyl Records","offers":[{"title":"Early Bird Vinyl (Clear w\/ Hot Pink Splatter)","offer_id":67981402046771,"sku":"PRC-470LP-EB","price":26.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Vinyl (Hot Pink)","offer_id":50819002597683,"sku":"PRC-470LP","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50819002630451,"sku":"PRC-470CD","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Tape (White)","offer_id":50819002663219,"sku":"PRC-470TAPE","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0881\/7655\/8387\/files\/KKB_INTROEBWLOGO_SQ1.jpg?v=1794557281"},{"product_id":"generationals-heatherhead","title":"Generationals - Heatherhead","description":"\u003cp style=\"margin-left:-0.1pt;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:#000000;\"\u003eTed Joyner and Grant Widmer knew they had balked before they even got home. In the Fall of 2021, Joyner and Widmer—for a dozen years, the beguiling garage-pop pair known as \u003cstrong\u003eGenerationals\u003c\/strong\u003e—wrapped the second of two sessions in Georgia for a new EP. They’d opted out of the process of file-sharing they had used for years. Choosing instead\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003eto cut songs straight to tape in Athens, a spiritual epicenter for their brand of twinkling tunes. The results sounded great, but they didn’t think their songs were actually that exciting or up to snuff. Why busy everyone else with the rigamarole of releasing a record when they weren’t convinced by it themselves? Joyner and Widmer scrapped the sessions, relieved. The decision, after all, did not represent some existential crisis for Generationals, some what-are-we-doing-here panic; it was, instead, a validation of trusting their process and respective enthusiasms, of releasing great records rather than churning out substandard “content.” Before the veto was final, Joyner and Widmer were working on songs they already knew passed that test.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp style=\"margin-left:-0.1pt;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:#000000;\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eHeatherhead\u003c\/i\u003e is the winning result of that restart. Effortless and endearing, as settling as a long hug from an old friend, \u003ci\u003eHeatherhead\u003c\/i\u003e is not only the best Generationals album yet but also the one that, after all these years, finds Joyner and Widmer at last epitomizing their sound. These 11 songs are no-fuss, no-filler manifestations of Generationals’ bittersweet beauty, of would-be rock anthems made to feel like cozy sweaters. Maybe it’s the way the thick riff of the indelible “Dirt Diamond” frames a vulnerable admission or how the taut rhythm section of “Hard Times for Heatherhead” buoys a smitten plea, but this record at large feels like Joyner and Widmer digging deeper into the juxtapositions that have long made Generationals so compelling—distinct but familiar, wry but warm, soft but pointed. \u003ci\u003eHeatherhead\u003c\/i\u003e is the record Joyner and Widmer have been pursuing from the start.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp style=\"margin-left:-0.1pt;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:#000000;\"\u003eAll was not lost down in Georgia, it seems, as the act of recording in the same room seemed to shake something loose for Joyner and Widmer. With Joyner still in the band’s hometown of New Orleans and Widmer now in Wisconsin, they’d grown comfortable passing ever-evolving tracks back and forth, adding parts or offering suggestions to one another as albums steadily cohered. They’d done compelling stuff that way, too. But after abandoning those in-person sessions, they decided to commingle ideas earlier this time. Joyner escaped the Louisiana heat in June 2022 by heading north, the two rendezvousing in Madison with loads of demos. They augmented one another’s takes in real time, shaping songs that fell together like puzzle pieces. When a tornado ripped through Widmer’s front yard and left them without power for days, they took it not as a sign to stop but as an invitation to just enjoy still being the buds in Generationals, drinking warm beer and listening to an emergency radio together.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp style=\"margin-left:-0.1pt;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:#000000;\"\u003eBack in their respective quarters, Joyner and Widmer went to work with multi-instrumentalist, producer, and pal Nick Krill (The War on Drugs, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Spinto Band), creating a cross-country file-sharing triangle. They moved quickly, finishing \u003ci\u003eHeatherhead\u003c\/i\u003e—their sixth LP, but first in four years—that way in a mere matter of months. Despite all their fretting a year earlier about making music together in a room, these songs somehow felt more conversational and lived-in, like two old pals throwing a few back and tunefully singing of toil and joy. The true circumstances are ironic, given that, for 42 minutes, you feel like you’re right there with them.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp style=\"margin-left:-0.1pt;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:#000000;\"\u003eIndeed, these are the sorts of songs you want to stay with for a while, to crawl inside of and have a look around for all the crafty details. Notice the way the sizzling little riff seems to bounce between the walls of “Elena,” an enchanting collaboration with Sarah Jaffe that glows like a woodstove in a winter cabin. Marvel at the muted funk of “Eutropius (Give Me Lies),” particularly the way the byzantine drum lines percolate beneath Joyner’s cotton-candy falsetto. And enjoy the marvelous seesaw of opener “Waking Moment,” a song that squeezes a dozen dynamic shifts and at least half as many hooks into four minutes that are as cool as a breeze. You can do this with every song on \u003ci\u003eHeatherhead\u003c\/i\u003e, limn those bits that give these seemingly billowing tunes real ballast; you could, on the other hand, just let them surround you, seemingly simple pleasures abounding.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color:transparent;color:#000000;\"\u003e“Closer to your death than to your birth,” Joyner sings during “Faster Than a Fever,” his voice traced by spring-loaded drums and sighing keys. “You’re gonna be upset to miss your favorite part.” It would be tempting for a band like Generationals—now well into their second decade—to let such an anxious feeling override their instincts. That might mean putting out something they didn’t love or reinventing their approach to chase a fanciful trend. To the contrary, Joyner and Widmer now have a better understanding of who they want to be and how they want to sound than ever before. You can hear it in every distinct but familiar, wry but warm, soft but pointed second of \u003ci\u003eHeatherhead\u003c\/i\u003e—a perpetually renewing relationship that gave them the wherewithal to pursue these 11 songs, apart and then together and apart again.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cblockquote\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:hsl(0,75%,60%);\"\u003eAll songs written by Grant Widmer (Materio\/ASCAP) and Ted Joyner (Mount Hermon Music\/ASCAP). 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The band’s energetic, danceable pop has assumed many forms since they first emerged in 2007, always reliably delivering unshakeable melodies and larger-than-life anthems infused with intellectually challenging lyrics. In recent years, STRFKR explored more experimental waters when they constructed a fuzzy dream world with their home-recorded 2020 album \u003ci\u003eFuture Past Life\u003c\/i\u003e or subtracted structure entirely from fully instrumental collection \u003ci\u003eAmbient 1\u003c\/i\u003e. New album \u003ci\u003eParallel Realms\u003c\/i\u003e finds yet another path, redefining the kind of direct, high-impact songwriting that’s long been the core of the band’s strongest material. Streamlined and immediate, the album distills STRFKR’s 15 plus years of artistic growth without forfeiting any of the perspective they’ve gained along the way. It’s their clearest, most organized, and most exciting work yet.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:#000000;\"\u003eAs with many other albums, \u003ci\u003eParallel Realms\u003c\/i\u003e started with sorting through a mountain of ideas looking for inspiration. While combing through stacks of partially-realized demos, it became clear that the most interesting songs all had a consistent playfulness to them. A through-line of upbeat fun gradually came into view, with a joyous vibe that sometimes bordered on ‘80s synth pop euphoria. STRFKR followed this impulse further, digging back through their archives to seek out songs that hadn’t made sense until now, but matched the specific uplifting feeling that was becoming the connective tissue for the new album. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:#000000;\"\u003eSubconscious lyrical patterns started arising, as well, repeatedly circling back to the idea of how different people can experience the same thing from wildly different emotional vantage points. This kind of parallel intake served as the inspiration for many of the songs, and ultimately the title of the album. Songs gelled around this concept quickly. Relentlessly hooky, “Together Forever” uses its rubbery bass line and melodic instrumentation to express different sides of the frustration and satisfaction of love. “Holding On” ping-pongs through tormented indecision about keeping a relationship alive or letting it go with a dreamy instrumental that sounds like sunbeams tearing apart the sky. Dark-yet-bubbly single “Armatron” evolves from tension to tenderness, mirroring a heated lover’s argument that settles into softness when tempers cool. This is reflected in how the song’s sassiness transitions into a more introspective feel in its second half, and is one of many moments on the album that STRFKR arrived at through heightened collaboration, not just between the band members, but with valuable input from network of trusted friends and advisors. For a band used to getting into the weeds with their highly controlled writing process, everything fell into place almost a little too effortlessly. At some point, though, they made a conscious decision to step out of their own way, not overcomplicate things, and just let the album come together around this new, singular energy. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:#000000;\"\u003eThis approach continued into the album’s recording phase. The band returned to the stripped-down mindset they’d used when making \u003ci\u003eFuture Past Life\u003c\/i\u003e, but instead of that record’s psychedelic blurriness, they applied uncluttered, no-nonsense arrangements to electro-pop bangers. The abrupt gear-shifting and experimental detours of previous albums are reshaped into concise, song-serving flashes. Minute-long ambient interludes provide palate cleansers between immediately catchy floor-filling dance tracks, and neither overstay their welcome. What really rocketed the album past the finish line was handing over mixing duties to Chris Coady (Beach House, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Blonde Redhead). This marked the most hands-off STRFKR has ever been with the final step of any of their records, relinquishing control and just letting Coady work his magic. This followed\u003ci\u003e Parallel Realms\u003c\/i\u003e’ tendency toward collective creation, and Coady’s mixing rivaled anything the band had achieved before. The rhythm sections are huge, the hooks are crystalline, and the entire album gels into a cohesive, dynamic whole. Gone are any hints of “indie” caliber production; these songs sound enormous, with a level of glitter that contends with modern commercial radio hits. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:#000000;\"\u003eMore than anything STRFKR has made before, \u003ci\u003eParallel Realms\u003c\/i\u003e carries a triumphant sense of renewal. Though never implicitly stated, the elevated sound, straightforward songwriting, and especially unclouded vision of the album all convey the feeling of breaking through to new possibilities. Somehow, this many years into an ever-changing evolution, STRFKR has made some of their most accessible music yet while still furthering the introspective thinking and self-imposed challenges that have always pushed their art forward. \u003ci\u003eParallel Realms\u003c\/i\u003e courses with positivity even in its heaviest moments. 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Elise Okusami, the creative vision known to hearts and minds as \u003cstrong\u003eOceanator\u003c\/strong\u003e, has theories on her own trusted framework: “In the literal sense, all my songs are about apocalypse and love.” The evidence of this lives in the work she has revealed to date; her 2020 debut album \u003ci\u003eThings I Never Said\u003c\/i\u003e and 2022’s follow-up \u003ci\u003eNothing’s Ever Fine\u003c\/i\u003e. These are collections rife with songs sung to these two ideas; apocalyptic terror and desperate love holding strong in the face of unimaginable hardship. “I think that most of the events in your life that are important can be put into either or both of those categories,” she says, “with \u003ci\u003eThings I Never Said\u003c\/i\u003e and then \u003ci\u003eNothing's Ever Fine\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eEverything is Love and Death\u003c\/i\u003e feels like a summation of those ideas.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis idea became the title of her new record: \u003ci\u003eEverything is Love and Death\u003c\/i\u003e, a name that came to Okusami as if it were premonition and reminder of the tether between all things. Years on the road and recorded to wax have proven that Oceanator deftly commands the elements of infectious rhythms, constructing songs built around hook-laden melodies that inspire movement in even the sturdiest of feet. Okusami’s edge for writing indelible classics has become sharpened on stone over time, hardened by the influences in her rearview; power pop, skate punk, the beautiful melodrama of pop stars and 90s alt-rock. Essential pieces that nurtured the ground of the songs on her latest and most dynamic record to date. Working for the first time with Grammy nominated producer Will Yip (Turnstile, The Wonder Years, Bartees Strange), Okusami was given an opportunity to spend a full month in the studio, longer than on previous outings, in order to take time in build out the songs she had written around the core tenants of love and death.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLead single “Get Out” announces itself with the grandiloquent thump of a kick drum, swift and heavy like a frantic heartbeat racing to the end, making way for otherworldly guitars that trade polished and gritty chords swirling like a fire in the night. An instant sing-along classic with an anthemic chorus anchoring a chaotic tempo, close your eyes and you can picture fists as they find the air, chanting “get up, get up, get out tonight”. Album opener “First Time” rings clear and bright, familiar like a memory you never knew had been locked away, guitars ringing like fireworks and Okusami’s voice pushing and pulling you with symphonic delight, urging you through and onwards. “Be Here” opens with dueling guitars as they echo against each other, conjuring haunting synths that shine like cosmic memories. 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Love and death, the heart of all things.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese themes announce themselves here with bombast and static fury, a bigger and louder sound than Oceanator has delivered in times past. “The feeling that these songs were giving me was that they needed to be a big, loud rock band with shredding guitars,” Okusami says. A big, loud rock band is what has grown in the soil of the record, grown from trusted vision and nurtured by Okusami and Yip’s shared understanding of a collective vision. Okusami and her polymathic mastery of instruments finds her playing guitar, bass, synths and drums, alongside her brother and frequent collaborator Mike Okusami on bass and piano and paired with the dynamic rhythms of Yip on drums and other percussion. All of these components gorgeously elaborated on by additional instrumentation from Megan Siebe, Andrew Whitehurst, Eric Sherman and David Haik. With the time afforded at Will Yip’s Studio 4 Recording space, demos became climatic singles, ringing big and loud and clear, instant classics that feel like beloved reminiscences.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eStanding at the forefront of this cascading wall of sound are Okusami’s lyrics, the strongest and most clarified of Oceanator’s catalog that came to her easier than ever before. Molding punchy turns of phrases into their own instruments, taking moments in the studio to tighten and shape but never overthink herself and her vision. Trusting that she knows where all things started and where they may still lead, even when they are hard or tender. 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Equal parts shared memoir, communal outpouring, and riveting emotional travelogue, each track is infused with both unsparing self-awareness and immense sensitivity, and the result is a bold leap forward for one of the most creatively uncompromising and singular voices in indie-rock.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“This record came from a very formative time for us—there was a lot of change that felt so fun and exciting, but also a lot of instability and heartbreak,” says Weingarten, who met Friedman during their high-school years in L.A. and soon struck up a close musical collaboration. As they dealt with the fallout of that phase of their lives (a moment marked by infidelity, loneliness, heavy drinking, and the start of new romance), the two friends made a pact to wade through the mess together. “In a way it felt like we flipped our entire lives upside-down,” says Friedman. “We needed to lean on each other to cope with everything we were going through, and writing songs together was a big part of working through those feelings and finally putting them to rest.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eWelcome to My Blue Sky\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, produced by their bandmate Aron Kobayashi Ritch,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003emarks the follow-up to \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eHousehold Name\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—a 2022 release that earned acclaim from the likes of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePitchfork\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNYLON\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNME\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRolling Stone\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e (including landing on Rob Sheffield’s “Top 20 Albums of 2022” list). 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With the help of drummer Preston Fulks, Momma arrived at an album matching the raw urgency of rock with the sticky melodies and taut arrangements of pop—a dynamic born from their deepened commitment to finding the most direct vessel for their emotional expression. “With this album we were less concerned with sounding cool and heavy and rock \u0026amp; roll and much more focused on good, clean songwriting that hopefully inspires people to sing along and mean every word,” Weingarten reveals.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOne of the first songs completed for \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eWelcome to My Blue Sky\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, “I Want You (Fever)” served as an essential breakthrough in shaping the album’s viscerally charged, inventive, and detailed sound. “I remember us writing that in my bedroom and coming up with a riff for the pre-chorus, and then deciding to sing that part instead of playing it on guitar—which felt so fun and fresh and took the song in a whole new direction,” Friedman recalls. “I Want You (Fever),” with its frenetic textures and hypnotic chorus, soon evolved into a fantastically loopy portrait of forbidden love. “When we were recording that song I felt such an intense joy that I couldn’t stop smiling,” says Weingarten. “It felt completely authentic to Momma, but also like stepping into a whole new era.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMainly recorded live with the full band at Studio G in Brooklyn, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eWelcome to My Blue Sky \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003etakes its title from a gorgeous, sprawling track embodying a far more wistful mood, where Momma’s tender introspection is adorned with bittersweet strings and graceful acoustic-guitar work. “We were on tour and stopped at a gas station and saw a sign that said ‘Welcome to My Blue Sky,’ which hit me as really poetic—although it turned out to be an ad for an oil company,” Weingarten explains. “We got to the venue and wrote that song so quickly, and it ended up being about the experience of going on tour and leaving people behind, and all the unknowns as far as what the future holds for us.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eReferring to \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eWelcome to My Blue Sky\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e as “an open letter to those who have come in and out of our lives,” across the album Momma explores the full spectrum of their emotional experience during that summer 2022 tour. On “Ohio All The Time,” the band slips into a lovely nostalgia as they reminisce about a fleeting moment Friedman likens to “living in our own little dream world,” imbuing the track with all the punchy effervescence of early-aughts alt-pop.  “Rodeo” is written from the perspective of their former romantic partners, offering up a heavy-hearted anthem channeling both frustration and longing—a tension perfectly echoed in its pummeling riffs, staccato drum beats, and indelibly sweet vocal delivery. “There was a lot of infidelity that happened on that tour, and we wrote ‘Rodeo’ as a way to process that and own up to how we might have made other people feel,” Friedman points out. Meanwhile, on “Bottle Blonde,” Momma brings moody breakbeats and lush synth loops to an intimate meditation on the complexities of their friendship. “That song is partly us talking to our younger selves and telling them everything’s going to be okay, but it’s also us talking to each other right now,” says Weingarten. “It’s saying that even if our relationship ebbs and flows, we know that we’ll always be each other’s anchors no matter what we go through.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFor the bookends to \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eWelcome to My Blue Sky\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, Momma selected two songs that took them far beyond their comfort zone: the album-opening “Sincerely” (a free-flowing, acoustic-guitar-driven piece conceived as a farewell to their former lives) and fuzzed-out closing track “My Old Street” (a brutally honest look back at their childhoods). “I’m still really nervous for certain people in my life to hear these songs; they all have a level of vulnerability that feels pretty scary,” says Weingarten in reflecting on the latter. But in their dedication to, in Friedman’s words, “learning how to confess the hard things,” Momma hopes to inspire others to make peace with the messiest and most uncomfortable truths of their personal experience—and, in turn, head into the wild unknown of their own blue sky with confidence, curiosity, and self-compassion.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(255, 42, 0);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEtta Friedman - Guitar, vocals, lyrics, additional instrumentation\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(255, 42, 0);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAllegra Weingarten - Guitar, vocals, lyrics, additional instrumentation\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(255, 42, 0);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAron Kobayashi Ritch - Produced, mixed, head-engineered, co-written, bass, additional instrumentation, sampling\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(255, 42, 0);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePreston Fulks - Drums, percussion\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(255, 42, 0);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHayden Ticehurst - Assistant engineer at Studio G\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(255, 42, 0);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSebastian Jones - Assistant engineer at Wasatch studios, double bass on Sincerely \u0026amp; Take Me With You, piano on Welcome to My Blue Sky \u0026amp; My Old Street\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(255, 42, 0);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDorothy Carlos - Cello on Welcome to My Blue Sky \u0026amp; How to Breathe\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(255, 42, 0);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAlbum art photos by Daria Kobayashi Ritch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(255, 42, 0);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAlbum art design \u0026amp; layout by Etta Friedman\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(255, 42, 0);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStyling by Kelly Sachiko Page\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(255, 42, 0);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMastered by Matt Colton\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(255, 42, 0);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRecorded at Studio G in Brooklyn \u0026amp; Wasatch Studios in Los Angeles\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e","brand":"Polyvinyl Records","offers":[{"title":"Early Bird Vinyl (Sky Blue Mix)","offer_id":67749919883571,"sku":"PRC-503LP-EB","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Vinyl (Coke Bottle Clear)","offer_id":51012140499251,"sku":"PRC-503LP","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":51012140532019,"sku":"PRC-503CD","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Tape (Blue Tint)","offer_id":51012140564787,"sku":"PRC-503TAPE","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital","offer_id":51012140597555,"sku":"PRC-503DIGITAL","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0881\/7655\/8387\/files\/Momma_WTMBS_EBSQ1WLOGO_e3565163-faf8-4b39-85b2-954e18ee40ae.jpg?v=1794557676"},{"product_id":"post-animal-iron","title":"Post Animal - Iron","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhen \u003cstrong\u003ePost Animal \u003c\/strong\u003estepped into the studio for their new album, it was the first time all six original members were in the studio together for nearly a decade. Three band members had recently relocated away from Chicago, not to mention Joe Keery having left the band in 2017 to focus on acting. In the end they started right back up at the beginning, rediscovering that uncompromising closeness of connection they all shared from those endless hours spent in practice spaces and the late-night diner runs that follow. Prolonged stretches of time together not only reinforced the strength of their friendship—it reinvigorated their music. “If you want to get one hour of good painting in, you have to have four hours of uninterrupted time,” David Lynch once said. 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Guitarist Javi Reyes and drummer Wesley Toledo dropped back home to Chicago, while guitarist Matt Williams moved to Los Angeles, bassist Dalton Allison decamped for Ithaca, and multi-instrumentalist Jake Hirshland relocated to Brooklyn. “There was some burnout happening,” Allison says. “We were ruthlessly fighting and grinding.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut then Keery showed up at a New York tour stop, and the idea was hatched that they cut another record—all six band members together again, for the first time since 2017. “When we made \u003cem\u003eWhen I Think of You in a Castle\u003c\/em\u003e, that was near the start of \u003cem\u003eStranger Things\u003c\/em\u003e,” Keery recalls. “And now with it kind of coming to an end in my own life, we all felt it'd be great to do something like that again, to go somewhere and be isolated and work on music together. It was a labor of love.” A big part of that process was focusing on the experience rather than putting pressure on an outcome. “We all agreed that even if we went and just hung out, we’d be happy with it,” Toledo says. “We're just heartfelt, sentimental, and emotional, but there was a real positivity and optimism among us.” They would set up camp at the Indiana home of their friends Malcolm Brown and Charles Glanders, an A-frame tucked into some woodlands with massive windows for views of the fall foliage. In addition to the lush surroundings, the band’s hosts pitched in: Glanders engineered the tracks with Allison, while Brown inspired via chef-caliber meals. “We got back to our roots, hanging out and writing music without the expectations or pressure,” Hirshland says.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe creativity driven by comfort is apparent from the opening instrumental track; “Malcolm’s Cooking” was recorded in part on a balcony overlooking the woods, complete with the humid wind, insect whirring, and euphorically clinking bottles. Lead single “Last Goodbye” follows, a slow-loping look at the end of a relationship, a point in time somehow both uneasy and familiar. “I try to love every corner of your mind\/ But we’ve been going off the deep end,” they sing, buffeted by choppy acoustic, prickly electric staccato, and waves of harmony. There’s a vintage AM radio glow to follow-up “Pie in the Sky”, a giddy-up bass and thumping percussion giving way to layered harmony. “Make me wanna sell my soul for just a bit of your shine\/ How am I gonna fill this hole, if your heart ain’t mine?” they sigh in a fit of honest, unadorned adoration.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“This record felt like a revitalization of our friendships and our band,” Hirshland says. “We always work collaboratively, but it’s amazing how reintroducing Joe into the mix brought back that dynamic from 2017.” Keery agrees, noting both how close they’ve remained and also much has changed since their last work together. \"We're all still such great friends, but now everybody has a lot more experience under their belts,\" he says. \"I was just appreciative to be spending this time, knowing we might not get another chance to do this the way we're doing it right now. The record reflects that enjoyment, and you can feel the fun.\" Not only did the six members work closely together, each brought in song ideas and took their turn taking the lead. In perhaps the most intimate example, the glistening, punchy “Maybe You Have To” opens with a voicemail of Toledo’s abuela prior to her passing. The track that follows stares at the pain of that loss, unflinchingly. “The song is about coming to terms with death, with the absence of someone you love,” he says. “She was a warrior.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEven when \u003cem\u003eIRON\u003c\/em\u003e touches on heavy themes, Post Animal finds fluidity and strength in their compositions—a clear result of sharing so much time together. Members of the group would come and go from the home studio, a free-flowing stream of ideas. “This is the easiest experience I’ve had making an album,” Williams says. Reyes agrees, noting that ease comes from understanding—and growing from—your past: “It’s a return to ourselves, but down the road, feeling better than we ever have.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThroughout the album, Post Animal use that honed edge to push and pull at genre threads, imbuing some synthpop here and some folk there, vintage radio rock on one track and twitchy psychedelia on the next. Like the six sides of a die, the members of Post Animal each brought their own energy and style into an interconnected whole. Whether in the tumbling, interlocking eighth notes of the sugary “Common Denominator” or the cloudlike, piano-driven title track, \u003cem\u003eIRON\u003c\/em\u003e lives deliciously in its moment, in the room. Or, as Hirshland explains it: “This is an exploration of being alive and in this group of friends.” The beguiling “Setting Sun” churns and flares across that spectrum, opening on a burnt synth wash, a chunky electric guitar matching the lead vocals step for step. Psych pop “Dorien Kregg”, meanwhile, taps into some Elephant 6 orchestral energy, Allison taking on the mantle of the title character with childlike glee. “I remember Jake coming home from a grocery run and I was standing in the driveway being a creep, channeling this character,” Allison laughs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSurreal ideas like that only come about (let alone get chased down to such a brilliant conclusion) with the punchy energy that comes from a month of working this closely together. \u003cem\u003eIRON\u003c\/em\u003e puts the listener directly into the room with the band, freewheeling and experimental yet played with precision. That atmosphere should be palpable as the band hits the road with Keery’s Djo project, Toledo and Reyes pulling double duty as well by working in his backing band—the whole group getting to spend even more time together. “We’re having fun making things that we’re proud of. It’s a more mature period for us as collaborators and as friends,” Reyes says. “We’re all vibing with each other creatively, enjoying the momentum and our friendship.” Allison vehemently agrees: “All of these creative forces coming together, it was like iron sharpening iron,” he says. “When we’re in proximity with one another, we make each other better.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(255, 42, 0);\"\u003eAll songs written \u0026amp; produced by Post Animal (Dalton Allison, Jake Hirshland, Joe Keery, Javier Reyes, Wesley Toledo, Matt Williams)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(255, 42, 0);\"\u003eEngineered by Dalton Allison \u0026amp; Charles Glanders\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(255, 42, 0);\"\u003eMixed by Adam Thein \u0026amp; Dalton Allison\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(255, 42, 0);\"\u003eMastered by Jared Hirshland\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e","brand":"Polyvinyl Records","offers":[{"title":"Early Bird Vinyl (Metallic Iron Mist)","offer_id":67749919752499,"sku":"PRC-516LP-EB","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Vinyl (Coke Bottle Clear)","offer_id":51358079189299,"sku":"PRC-516LP","price":22.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":67601307435315,"sku":"PRC-516CD","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Tape (Smoky Tint)","offer_id":67601307566387,"sku":"PRC-516TAPE","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0881\/7655\/8387\/files\/PostAnimal_IRON_EBSQ1_1.jpg?v=1794565140"},{"product_id":"vivian-girls-youre-my-favorite-waste-of-time-garage-sale","title":"Vivian Girls - You're My Favorite Waste of Time","description":"","brand":"Polyvinyl Records","offers":[{"title":"7\" Flexi (Red)","offer_id":51632130654515,"sku":"MISC","price":5.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0881\/7655\/8387\/files\/Flexi-01_1200.jpg?v=1749469760"},{"product_id":"of-montreal-deliberate-self-harm-ha-ha-ha-acoustic-version-garage-sale","title":"of Montreal - Deliberate Self-Harm Ha Ha Ha (Acoustic Version)","description":"","brand":"Polyvinyl Records","offers":[{"title":"7\" Flexi","offer_id":51632132915507,"sku":"MISC","price":5.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0881\/7655\/8387\/files\/flxcover.jpg?v=1749469920"},{"product_id":"squirrel-flower-your-love-garage-sale","title":"Squirrel Flower - Your Love","description":"","brand":"Polyvinyl Records","offers":[{"title":"7\" Flexi","offer_id":51632135405875,"sku":"MISC","price":5.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0881\/7655\/8387\/files\/SquirrelFlower_FlexiMock_SQ.jpg?v=1749470060"},{"product_id":"algernon-cadwallader-trying-not-to-have-a-thought","title":"Algernon Cadwallader - Trying Not To Have A Thought","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eTrying Not to Have a Thought \u003c\/i\u003eisn't just the first \u003cstrong\u003eAlgernon Cadwallader\u003c\/strong\u003e album since 2011's \u003ci\u003eParrot Flies\u003c\/i\u003e. It's also the first with their original lineup - vocalist-bassist Peter Helmis, guitarists Joe Reinhart and Colin Mahony, and drummer Nick Tazza - since Algernon's seminal 2008 debut, \u003ci\u003eSome Kind of Cadwallader\u003c\/i\u003e. Shortly after that album was recorded \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e– and long before it was heralded as a lodestar for the 2010s \"emo revival\" - Tazza and Mahony departed the band. Despite their looming influence on the aforementioned \"revival,\" Algernon broke up in 2012 following the release of \u003ci\u003eParrot Flies \u003c\/i\u003eand remained stubbornly deceased until their fiendishly anticipated resurrection in 2022.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\"I almost see it as fate that it boiled us down to this core, our original form,\" Helmis says. \"There' a certain magic to that that couldn't really be replicated.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eThere was no expectation that the reunion tour would precipitate new music. However, as the band began rehearsing their classic songs, new ideas started leaking out in the form of off-the-cuff jams, and the seeds of \u003ci\u003eTrying Not to Have a Thought \u003c\/i\u003ebegan to germinate. Reinhart was pleasantly surprised that, even after 17 years of not playing together under the Algernon umbrella, the foursome's foundational musical chemistry was still surging.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\"I'm kind of hearing in my head what this person's already doing,\" Reinhart says, recalling the intuitive flow of those improvisational jams.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eTrying Not to Have a Thought \u003c\/i\u003eis simultaneously the most considered and off-the-cuff Algernon Cadwallader album yet. The 11-song classic was written across two rural retreats on either side of the country - first in Snoqualmie, Washington (mythically known as Twin Peaks), and then in the Poconos in the woods of Pennsylvania. After an initial session at Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, the collection was largely recorded and self-produced at Reinhart's Headroom Studios in Philadelphia. Whereas some reunion records sound stilted and forced, this record sounds resplendently natural: the production warm and lively, the musicianship congenial yet exacting, and the hooks effortlessly sticky. Fans who've been listening to Algernon since their 2005 formation will be fondly reminded of the band's familiar ring, but the album feels distinctly uncoupled from any of the ephemeral trends that Algernon were previously filed under. Their musical touchpoints remain unchanged - \"Joan of Arc and Pavement in a blender is where we end up sitting,\" Reinhart says with a smile - but the band sounds more comfortably singular than ever before.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eAlgernon Cadwallader are certainly cognizant of their cult legacy, a status that's transformed their fanbase into a unique convergence of graying punk lifers and fresh-faced teens who first discovered \"midwest emo\" on TikTok. Given the long gap between albums and the critical acclaim they've garnered in that time (a 2018 \u003ci\u003ePitchfork \u003c\/i\u003eretrospective earned \u003ci\u003eSome Kind of Cadwallader \u003c\/i\u003ea sterling 8.3 score), it would've been understandable for the guys to feel pressured to live up to their own standards while making this new record. Thankfully, the opposite was the case.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\"If anything, I think [our legacy] made us feel like we had more freedom to be ourselves and let it come out naturally,\" Helmis says. Reinhart doubles down on their creative autonomy: \"The only thing we ever try to do is entertain ourselves. Do we like this? Good. No? Let's try harder.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eTrying Not to Have a Thought \u003c\/i\u003ediffers most from previous Algernon records in its lyrical content. 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Album opener \"Hawk\" is a brisk, poignant meditation on grief that weighs the ache of loss against the bittersweet memories that keep the deceased ever present. \"Revelation 420\" and \"Million Dollars\" are scorching political diatribes that excoriate capitalism's failures and venerate protest. \"Attn MOVE\" is a historical reminder of the MOVE 9, a group of Black radical activists whose Philadelphia homes were notoriously bombed by police in 1985 - a block of houses that's located right between Reinhart's current house and Headroom Studios.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eWith \u003ci\u003eTrying Not to Have a Thought\u003c\/i\u003e, Algernon Cadwallader juggle intrinsic musical connection and shrewd lyrical intention with remarkable poise. 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And this record is exactly that: an Algernon Cadwallader album that's leisurely, intensely, tremendously their own.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Saddle Creek","offers":[{"title":"Vinyl (Stabilo Blue)","offer_id":51869978034483,"sku":"NPV","price":23.4,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0881\/7655\/8387\/files\/Algernon_VinylMock_PVCollab_Front.png?v=1754346147"},{"product_id":"hey-mercedes-everynight-fire-works-1","title":"Hey Mercedes - Everynight Fire Works","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHey Mercedes\u003c\/strong\u003e - The Reissues is a special batch of vinyl pressings featuring:\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eEverynight Fire Works\u003c\/em\u003e (2001 full-length debut + companion \u003cem\u003eThe Weekend EP\u003c\/em\u003e and two bonus covers)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eLoses Control \u003c\/em\u003e(2003 sophomore album; 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