Month: October 2022

Review: The 1975 – Being Funny In a Foreign Language

Adam Grundy

The fifth studio album from The 1975 is a brilliant opus of endless musical possibilities. When the band set out to record this album, entitled Being Funny in a Foreign Language, in the height of the pandemic with veteran producer Jack Antonoff, the pressure couldn’t be higher on this English rock band to deliver the goods. While Notes on a Conditional Form was a mixed bag of stellar material, paired with some odd song sequencing, and a little too much filler, this album comes in and blows the door off the hinges with its ability to convey a wide range of emotions in an 11-song, concise artistic statement that never overstays its welcome. While listening to the record, you get the feeling that The 1975 were able to hone in on the best parts of their stylistic songwriting and bring forth the best version of themselves. Being Funny in a Foreign Language has all the makings of an album of the year, while still adding plenty of deep references for longtime fans of The 1975.

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Rodolphe Coster – “The Free House Session” (Video Premiere)

Adam Grundy

Today is the perfect day to share the latest single and music video from Rodolphe Coster called “The Free House Session.” On this great-sounding track, Rodolphe Coster channels the best parts of anthemic rock in a crowd-pleasing package. Coster shared:

With the band I work with in Brussels, we work more like A free jazz band in the frame of pop songs. I’m inspired by the feelings of human connections, those connections you feel with Art Ensemble Of Chicago, for example. That’s why I wanna keep this danger, the one that I think is so essential nowadays, the danger of LOVE and trust. I must say I love <my> musicians as humans, I think they are an incarnation of beauty. Both the ones that recorded the album and the one of the live session. As Jean Luc Godard said about the actors and actresses he worked with, first he needed to FALL IN love with them. I must say it happened with a certain sincerity so that i can’t even figure out how to describe their essential presence to me. We never stop the flow, we never rehearse but we ‘Wave on, we rave on, with the only thing that stands: the simplicity of a song.

Rodolphe Coster’s new LP, entitled High With the People will be everywhere music is sold on November 25th.

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Interview: Cody Votolato of J.R. SLAYER

J.R. SLAYER
Adam Grundy

Recently I was able to schedule a Zoom interview with Cody Votolato (The Blood Brothers) to discuss his latest musical offering called J.R. SLAYER. In this interview we discussed his new EP called Not Rotten as well as the new single of the same name. Additionally, we discussed what keeps him motivated as an artist, the bands he’s influenced by, as well as much more. You can purchase Not Rotten here.

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Calling Cadence – ‘Acoustic Session Vol. 1’ EP (Album Stream)

Calling Cadence
Adam Grundy

Today is the perfect day to share the latest offering of music from Calling Cadence, with their Acoustic Session Vol. 1 EP. This LA-based band are following up their debut, self-titled EP with this collection of acoustic songs to further showcase their songwriting chops. The band is comprised of Rae Cole and Oscar Bugarin, who shared this about the acoustic record:

Getting into the acoustic versions of the songs, was really taking it back to how the songs began. Three part harmony and 12 string (I didn’t have much money, sold all my guitars except the old 12 string to get by). We used to work these songs by performing live around LA, and I used to bang on the guitar like a drum to fill it out, which is an indigenous technique, when they took away their drums. It’s in my blood, and embedded in these songs. This time we had Thomas on bass, and it felt a little more complete in the acoustic incarnation.

If you’re enjoying the early listen, the record will be available for purchase starting tomorrow.

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Sarah and the Safe Word’s ‘Strange Doings In The Night’ Re-Mastered

Sara and the Safe Word
Adam Grundy

Today is the perfect time to start getting spooky, and preparing yourself to sit down to listen to Sarah and the Safe Word. The band is excited to announce their debut LP Strange Doings in the Night has been fully re-mastered and will also be pressed onto vinyl for the first time via Say10. And now as an added treat, you can stream the full album below.

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Matt Skiba Talks Future with Vulture

Alkaline Trio
Jason Tate

Vulture:

So Mark and I would talk, but we weren’t really talking about the band. We’re friends before we’re a band. Far beyond what the band is to me is Mark’s health and his friendship. So we just were talking. And over the course of, I don’t remember the exact timeframe, but Mark said that they were talking to Tom and starting to work on things. So it didn’t come as any — it was just as far as the actual information dropping and the schedule of everything was revealed to me when it was to everyone else, but I knew that it was coming. It wasn’t this huge surprise, nor was it a stab in the back. Those guys, we were friends — and this includes Tom. Tom especially has been a friend and a fan of my band for many years. Long before I started playing with Blink, Alkaline Trio was out on tour opening for Blink. And Tom had, if not everything to do with it, a lot to do with that. So we’ve always been buddies. We haven’t talked in recent years.

Liner Notes (October 16th, 2022)

Ferris Wheel
Jason Tate

This week’s newsletter has my thoughts on the Blink-182 reunion, first impressions of new music out this week (1975, Betty Who, Ten Foot Pole), and some early impressions of the new Carly Rae Jepsen. There’s also a playlist of ten songs I liked, and this week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.

If you’d like this newsletter delivered to your inbox each week (it’s free and available to everyone), you can sign up here.

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