Listen & Share: Waterstrider – Way Out

At one point or another, we all yearn for a fresh start, a clean slate. Yet few artists can empathize with that sentiment quite like the California indie rock project Waterstrider, whose Way Out EP arrives on the heels of a series of dramatic setbacks and disasters. Before writing the EP, frontman Nate Salman saw his home of Santa Barbara ravaged by fire and flood, had an infection in his heart that landed him in the ER, went through a painful breakup, and was even bitten by a potentially rabid bat. “When things hit hard, they hit really hard,” said Salman. Yet instead of being defeated, he took those experiences in stride, incorporating them into this dazzling and complex series of songs, which radiate hope and catharsis in equal measure.

While Waterstrider’s debut LP Nowhere Now (2016) and the Constellation EP (2011) were packed with exuberant polyrhythms and angular guitar figures alongside Salman’s soaring falsetto, Way Out invites listeners into shadowy soundscapes, permeated with rushes of sleek synths and kinetic percussion, that sync perfectly with its open-ended narratives.

While Salman demoed these five songs by himself, he completed them in collaboration with the London-based duo St. Francis Hotel, who add a dose of space-age gloss to the project. Largely eschewing the sunny guitar riffs of Waterstrider’s earlier work, tracks like “Weaker One” and the EP’s title track celebrate the lurching bounce of trip-hop, as well as the vast minor-key soundscapes of Mount Kimbie. Echoing the sparse arrangements of Joni Mitchell’s Hejira, closing track “Breed” strips down Way Out’s atmospheric touches, with Salman beginning the song backed only by a humid keyboard figure.

Throughout Way Out, Salman and his collaborators blend digital and acoustic instrumentation to thrilling effect. “I wanted Way Out to sound like a futuristic relic,” Salman explained. Nowhere is that more evident than on central track “In Circles,” in which Salman layers warm, pulsing synths with crunching drums and raspy veils of feedback into a disorienting sonic stew that reflect the multifaceted emotions threaded through the project.

Way Out considers a world renewed, and explores what it means to be an individual when everything familiar has disappeared from your life. Way Out is a manifestation of its own intentions; more than a mere reflection, it finds Nate Salman tapping into a new vein of his talent, with results that are as thrilling as they are unexpected.
 

Listen & Share: Alexandra Savior – Crying All The Time

Alexandra Savior has signed with 30th Century Records and has shared a brand new single “Crying All The Time” on Forbes, her first new music since 2017’s “Belladonna of Sadness”. Produced by Sam Cohen (Kevin Morby), “The Archer” develops to dramatic effect Savior’s magnetic performance and songwriting. Cohen states “It’s really a joy to work with someone who’s got such a strong sense of melody and also such a strong sense of what she wants stylistically.”

When talking about the track Savior (full name, Alexandra Savior McDermott), who hails from Portland, Oregon, says “I wrote “Crying All The Time” on New Year’s Day 2018, I had moved back home to Portland after a rough relationship. After being dropped from my previous record label I started attending community college and about two weeks in 30th Century reached out and offered for me to go to NYC and have a new record produced by Sam Cohen. We spent about 3 weeks recording “The Archer” in his studio in Dumbo, Brooklyn, it felt very natural to work with Sam because he is an incredibly kind man, and incredibly talented musician and producer.”

Adam Green Announces New LP Engine of Paradise Ft. Jonathan Rado & Florence Welch + Graphic Novel “War And Paradise”

Releases “Freeze My Love” Video + NYC LP Release Show At Rough Trade On Sept 6th, EU/UK Dates

Engine Of Paradise Out Sept 6th Via 30th Century Records, Graphic Novel “War And Paradise” Out Sept 6th

Photo Cred: Pete Voelker

LISTEN & SHARE: Adam Green – “Freeze My Love”

Adam Green has announced his new LP ‘Engine Of Paradise’ as well as a companion graphic novel ‘War And Paradise. Along with the LP announcement Adam has shared the track/video “Freeze My Love”. When talking about the track he says,

“Freeze My Love” is like a road trip song where your Corvette is a JPG filled with flesh cruising towards a blockchain horizon.  I think it’s a pretty song, I wish there was a radio station that played it continuously.”

When talking about the video Adam adds, “I filmed this video while constructing a huge papier mache “Pizza Beach” installation for The Museum of Pizza in Brooklyn.  A lot of the statues we built are characters from my upcoming graphic novel “War and Paradise” – the Rabbi of Regular Town and the bathers that purify their souls in sex-therapy sessions on the beaches of paradise.  You’ll also see in the video I had a superb crew of friends helping me with the artwork, all NY stars in their own right! Thanks to Erin Axtell, Marcel Castenmiller, Michael Cummings, Matthew Hitt, Joshua Hubbard, and Jesse Kotansky for their assistance.  Doing stuff like this is the meaning of life for me!”

Exploring the same themes as the upcoming album, Green is also releasing his first graphic novel, a psychedelic war epic called “War and Paradise” set in the colorful universe of his film “Adam Green’s Aladdin.”  The graphic novel will be released concurrently with the album.

Adam Green is an artistic polymath — a songwriter, filmmaker, visual artist, and poet. As part of New York’s downtown antifolk scene at the end of the nineties, Green made up one half of The Moldy Peaches, who later enjoyed mainstream success via the 2007 Grammy-winning Juno soundtrack. As a solo artist, Green has recorded 10 albums, many of which have become cult hits. His songs have been performed by artists as diverse as The Libertines, Carla Bruni, Kelly Willis, Dean & Britta, and Will Oldham. His 2005 record Gemstones went Gold in Europe. 

Green’s paintings and sculptures have been the subject of exhibitions in America, Asia and Europe, including a 2016 solo-show at the prestigious Fondation Beyeler Museum in Basel, Switzerland. Green first combined his visual aesthetic, psychedelic writings and musical compositions in the The Wrong Ferarri (2010), the first feature film shot entirely on an iPhone. The “screwball tragedy” was described by Rolling Stone magazine as “Fellini on Ketamine” and went on to feature in the curriculum of NYU’s Tisch Film School.

His second feature film, Adam Green’s Aladdin (2016) — an immersive fantasy film starring Macaulay Culkin, Natasha Lyonne, Alia Shawkat, Jack Dishel and Francesco Clemente and shot entirely on papier-mache sets — was described by Buzzfeed.com as “the trippiest movie ever made,” while RogerEbert.com called Aladdin “a movie that belongs inside a museum.”  An instant cult hit, the movie was screened theatrically in a midnight movie context, at over a hundred of Green’s concerts around the world, as well as the Andy Warhol Museum in Philadelphia.

After first publishing a bilingual volume of his poetry with Suhrkamp Verlag, Green’s newest book War and Paradise is a graphic novel that combines his lyrical and visual vocabulary. The satirical war epic is about the clash of humans with machines, the meeting of spirituality with singularity, and the bidirectional relationship between life and the afterlife.  Green’s 10th solo album, Engine of Paradise, is a musical exploration of these same themes. Recorded in Brooklyn, New York, by Loren Humphrey, the forthcoming album reimagines the baroque orchestral style of his early 2000s era records and features performances by James Richardson (MGMT), Florence Welch (Florence and the Machine) and Jonathan Rado (Foxygen).

TOUR DATES

9/6/19 – Rough Trade – Brooklyn, NY

10/18/19 – CCA – Glasgow, UK

10/19/19 – Soup Kitchen – Manchester, UK

10/20/19 – Thekla – Bristol, UK

10/22/19 – EartH – London, UK

10/24/19 – Vooruit – Ghent, BE

10/25/19 – Gaite Lyrique – Paris, FR

10/26/19 – Melkweg (Upstairs) – Amsterdam, NL

10/28/19 – Stage Club – Hamburg, Germany

10/29/19 – BiNuu – Berlin, Germany

10/31/19 – Palace – St. Gallen, Germany

11/1/19 – Sommercasino – Basel, Switzerland

11/2/19 – La Romandie – Lausanne, Switzerland

11/3/19 – Papiersaal – Zurich, Switzerland

11/5/19 – Flex Halle – Vienna, Austria

Tracklist

01. Engine of Paradise

02. Gather Round

03. Freeze My Love

04. Wines and Champagnes

05. Escape From This Brain

06.) Cheating on a Stranger

07.) Let’s Get Moving

08.) Rather Have No Thing

09.) Reasonable Man

Tracklist

01. Engine of Paradise

02. Gather Round

03. Freeze My Love

04. Wines and Champagnes

05. Escape From This Brain

06.) Cheating on a Stranger

07.) Let’s Get Moving

08.) Rather Have No Thing

09.) Reasonable Man

Links:

Website
Facebook
Soundcloud
Instagram
YouTube

Congratulations to Big Search whose new album Slow Fascination is out today on 30th Century Records. Produced by Rob Barbato (Kevin Morby, Girlpool, Cass McCombs), the emotionally explosive collection follows Matt Popieluch from the disorienting end of a marriage, through a period of nomadic insomnia, to a landing point of mid-30’s existential mutiny. Each song vents its own familiar feeling with beautifully frenetic musicianship, and guests including James Mercer of The Shins and Edward Droste of Grizzly Bear top an already sonically full experience. Big Search will play a run of dates down the West Coast supporting Pure Bathing Culture this spring. The full list is below.

30^th Century Records has announced the eagerly anticipated new album from acclaimed singer-songwriter-producer Sam Cohen. The Future’s Still Ringing In My Ears arrives on Friday, May 17. Co-produced by Cohen with Danger Mouse, The Future’s Still Ringing In My Ears is heralded by today’s premiere of the angry but groovy Beatles circa ’66 vibe of “Something’s Got A Hold On Me.”

LISTEN TO “SOMETHING’S GOT A HOLD ON ME”

Cohen will celebrate The Future’s Still Ringing In My Ears with a North American tour supporting his friend and longtime collaborator Kevin Morby. Dates begin May 8 at The Theatre at Ace Hotel in Los Angeles, CA and then continue through a two-night-stand at Chicago, IL’s Thalia Hall on June 7 and 8.

SAM COHEN ON TOUR 2019

ALL DATES w/KEVIN MORBY

MAY

8 – The Theatre at Ace Hotel – Los Angeles, CA

10 – The Catalyst – Santa Cruz, CA

11 – The Fillmore – San Francisco, CA

13 – Crystal Ballroom – Portland, OR

14 – The Showbox – Seattle, WA

15 – Imperial Vancouver – Vancouver, BC

17 – The State Room – Salt Lake City, UT

18 – The Bluebird Theater – Denver, CO

31 – Town Hall – New York, NY

JUNE

1 – 9:30 Club – Washington, DC

2 – Union Transfer – Philadelphia, PA

3 – The Sinclair – Cambridge, MA

5 – The Opera House – Toronto, ON

6 – The Ark – Ann Arbor, MI

7 – Thalia Hall – Chicago, IL

8 – Thalia Hall – Chicago, IL

Known both for his distinctive work producing such artists as Kevin Morby, Benjamin Booker and Rhett Miller among others, as well as a founding member of Apollo Sunshine and Yellowbirds, Sam Cohen has long been hailed for his otherworldly brand of naturalistic psychedelia, rich with enchanting songcraft, blissed-out soul grooves, and visionary guitar work. The Future’s Still Ringing In My Ears proves his most magical effort thus far, equally blessed by melody, melancholy and depth. Predominantly the work of one man toiling away alone in his studio but sounding like a cast of many, the album sees Cohen taking stock of a maddening present and a potentially dark future with one-of-a-kind heart, warmth, and wit.

The Future’s Still Ringing In My Ears was born out of a production session where Cohen was to collaborate with Danger Mouse on another artist’s material. When the session fell through, Danger Mouse suggested they spend the studio time on some of Cohen’s own material. Though Cohen had not written any songs since his acclaimed 2015 solo debut, Cool It, the sessions prompted him to begin putting pen to paper once again.

“Brian really helped me get motivated to make this record,” says Cohen. “His support pushed me to get started, and to value myself as an artist. It came at a time when I needed to hear that from someone.”

Recording at his own Brooklyn studio gave Cohen the luxury to record in haste and sculpt at leisure, imbuing his songs with exploratory synthesizers and truly transcendent guitars. Its slow gestation gave The Future’s Still Ringing In My Ears even greater depth and power, its extraordinary melding of the handmade and homespun etched with artful exactitude and uncompromising vision.

“For years I was like, ‘Alright, humans are killing the Earth — we had a good run, but…party’s over, guys!’” Cohen says. “It pains me more now. You can’t protect your kids from what’s to come.

“The only way to go on is to laugh at it a little, because the weight of it and the profundity of the problems can destroy you. What I want for this music is to connect with people struggling with these same thoughts and feelings. I want people to hear this and say, yes, this is all really heavy, and I also feel helpless, and we don’t have any good answers…but we have each other. And this music sounds really good! It’s all I can offer.”

CONNECT WITH SAM COHEN:

INSTAGRAM

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

SAM COHEN

THE FUTURE’S STILL RINGING IN MY EARS

RELEASE DATE: FRIDAY, MAY 17

TRACKLISTING:

I Can’t Lose

Something’s Got A Hold On Me

Man On Fire

No Good and Trying

Invisible Song

Deafening Silence

Dead Rider

Let The Sun Come Through

Waiting For My Baby

Spinning Love

The Future

Big Search has announced a new album Slow Fascination to be released April 12 on 30th Century Records. The LA artist Matt Popieluch worked with producer Rob Barbato (Kevin Morby, Girlpool, Cass McCombs) to expand upon his reputation for twelve-string guitar, bringing in harpsichord, synthesizer and piano to devise his most sonically dynamic offering yet. Guest vocalists including The Shins’ James Mercer, Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste and Kacey Johansing further intensify the collection.

Billboard premiered the first taste of Slow Fascination today, a “mellow yet impactful rock tune.” Matt Popieluch describes it as “an ode to the anxiety hanging in the air since the election, where both real and imagined catastrophe are constantly looming.” This is one of several evocative experiences the album examines for Popieluch, following the songwriter from the disorienting end of a marriage through a period of nomadic insomnia to a landing point of mid-30’s existential mutiny.

WATCH “HERE COMES THE NIGHT”

Matt Popieluch is a West Coast troubadour known for playing with the likes of Cass McCombs, Foreign Born, Papercuts, Glasser and Sky Ferreira, but performing as Big Search, his music boasts a satisfying semblance to sounds of an earlier time. Popieluch’s tasteful blend of nostalgic and inventive makes a memorable impact upon listeners, one of whom was label head Danger Mouse. The famed producer has said of his growing roster, “I’m not trying to shape the way these bands sound on the label at all. I’m looking for things that I like or that I connect with.” Read more about Big Search in the album bio below.

Big Search, Slow Fascination

Big Search: It means always looking.

Slow Fascination: It means learning slow.

First came the end of Matt Popieluch’s marriage. Then came a period of rambling and travel. He rented out his house. Trimmed weed on a California farm. House-sat for a producer friend. Worked for a nonprofit soup kitchen in Hollywood. Wrote. Recorded. Created Slow Fascination. Produced by Rob Barbato (Kevin Morby, Girlpool, Cass McCombs) at Comp’ny studio in Glendale, CA, the album is an evocative examination of experiences. Slow Fascination will be released April 12, 2019 on 30th Century Records.

The album is audibly set in L.A., where Popieluch has lived for 14 years. The city — forever spinning in a seasonless time warp, invisibly hurtling toward some unnamed singularity — can mess with your head. The effect is palpable here. In some ways, the record feels like the interior monologue of someone who is straddling worlds, each song a blurry vision of golden brown. Work is never done. Days go by. Oh well.

The stirring album opener “Slow Motion Train” delves fearlessly into this romanticized confusion, building and warping listeners’ vision with each ringing note. According to Popieluch, the song is about “feeling detached from reality while being subjected to it; not knowing how to interact with the world from your dimension; how time passes without seasons.”

What’s even more bewildering is the song’s radical, instrumental fullness. Though best known for his 12-string guitar, here, Popieluch forgoes the usual for a harpsichord and analog synth — the great Dave Smith OB-6, to be exact — masterfully melding the two in a dizzy collision of past and future. It’s a fluid and eclectic wealth of sonic sensations, touching the likes of Jade Warrior, the Everly Brothers’ In Our Image, Paul McCartney, Brian Eno.

Lead single “Here Comes The Night,” too, can whirl a mental state into wonder. It’s an all-too-resonant ode to political anxiety, a post-election state in which both real and imagined catastrophe are constantly looming. Popieluch cites “the weather and the behavior of animals before a storm, being on the precipice of an unknown chasm” as driving elements in the song and elaborates, “it’s also about resistance.”

Both “Stillness in the Air” and “Wire Walker” transcend structure with stream-of-consciousness songwriting. The former, Popieluch envisioned in his sleep while travelling through Sweden and scribbled down in a jolt upon awakening. The latter, he affectionately calls “a dream journey.”

Lucky track number seven, however, diverges from the burst approach. “What To Say” is an exquisitely contained centerpiece, one of careful emotion and gentle hope. Its instrumentation is as stunning as its sentiment. Not often can an artist so honestly evoke Nick Drake. Never so casually. Popieluch claims it as a personal favorite and admits its roots in his break-up. He says it’s about “the time at the end, and the period of traveling that followed, and the questions you ask yourself in those situations.”According to the singer, “It’s a reevaluation of what transpired through different eyes.”

Matt Popieluch’s history is peppered with musically diverse endeavors — from fronting Foreign Born to playing with Cass McCombs, Sky Ferreira, Fool’s Gold and Papercuts among others — evidence of his distinguished skill as a player. Notable collaborators on his new album speak to the distinction he’s earned. Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste, The Shins’ James Mercer and Kacey Johansing among others make fervent contributions to an already lively collection.

On the album cover, Popieluch sits among waves of fog rolling over Mt. Tamalpais, his hat pulled snug over his eyes — perhaps reality’s glare is too blinding in that moment. But on Slow Fascination, the singer finds refuge, peace among the madness. The album as a whole, it sounds like getting comfortable being lost. It sounds like life being lived.