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Latest From The Label

Latest From The Label

The Veils - “Sun Gangs”

WHY The Veils aren’t critically revered with the passion showered on lesser bands is a mystery of Bermuda Triangle proportions. …Singer Finn Andrews (son of XTC founder Barry) has a voice of resonance and magic which turbo-charges this third (time lucky?) album whether it’s moving through jabbing guitar blitzkriegs or introspective reveries. “The Letter” is instant; the rest are slow-burners. Take The Veils to your heart.     – MUSIC WEEK, CHRIS ROBERTS

Rough Trade Records are delighted to announce the stunning new album from The Veils, ‘Sun Gangs’ produced by Graham Sutton & Bernard Butler

The Veils are Finn Andrews, (vocals, guitar, piano, New Zealand) Sophia Burn, (bass, New Zealand) Dan Raishbrook (guitar, odd noise, England) and Henning Dietz (drums, Germany). ‘Sun Gangs’ is their third album.

‘Sun Gangs’ is a bold and distinctive record described by Finn as “a very modern mixture of prayers, love letters and personal record keeping”. Produced by Graham Sutton (Jarvis Cocker / British Sea Power / Bark Psychosis).

So many stories, words, tones and ideas punctuate its gradually unfolding landscape as that incomparable voice cries and hollers. “’Sit Down By The Fire’ is about watching something collapse, and it being quite pretty to look at,” offers Finn. “’Killed By The Boom’ is possibly about The Wire’s Omar Little. ‘It Hits Deep’ is about being a man, in a bar alone, on a tropical island resort, as the light gets dim and the world goes fuzzy. ‘Larkspur’ is somewhere else entirely.”

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 “I really wanted to write something that hangs together in perhaps a not so obvious way; not just some collection of singles but a real voyage into something, something strange and unspecific but totally emotionally consuming. It’s also kinda just a break-up record in many ways.”

Finn’s father Barry Andrews was a founding member of the highly influential group XTC in the late 1970s, later going on to tour with the likes of Robert Fripp & Brian Eno, Iggy Pop & David Bowie.

In younger days in Auckland, thousands of miles away from his father, Finn sang at a folk club up a volcano, and sidelined a desire to paint when he began hearing musicians like Tom Waits, Nina Simone, Leonard Cohen, Roy Orbison & Bob Dylan - contemplating that there was perhaps more to life than the bleeping Eighties electronica and early days of New Wave which had surrounded his first London foray.

In ‘Sun Gangs’ The Veils have brought Finn’s early influences full circle, and created a record that truly lives up to the huge promise and talent that they have always exhibited.
Tracklisting
1. Sit Down By The Fire*

2. Sun Gangs

3. The Letter

4. Killed By The Boom

5. It Hits Deep

6. Three Sisters

7. The House She Lived In

8. Scarecrow

9. Larkspur

10. Begin Again

* Produced by Bernard Butler, all others produced by Graham Sutton

"The Veils [are] purveyors of gothic Americana, inhabiting desert-stormy vistas that are just expansive enough to house the band's most valuable asset: Andrew's magnetic outsize persona." Pitchfork

 
The Veils – Sun Gangs – Release Date April 6
Label: Rough Trade     NZ Distributor: Rhythmethod
 
‘THE ETERNAL’ SONIC YOUTH

Sonic Youth's 16th album, 'The Eternal', will be released on vinyl, compact disc, and digital album by Matador Records on June 9.   Produced by John Agnello and the band, 'The Eternal' not only marks Sonic Youth's return to the independent label sphere (titles on their own SYR label excepted) after a long association with Geffen, but more importantly, ranks as one of their more inspired efforts in a 28 year career.

Recorded through November and December of last year at the band's Echo Canyon West studio in Hoboken, NJ, 'The Eternal' features many firsts for a Sonic Youth album, including a number of shared vocals between Kim, Thurston, and Lee, and the studio debut of former Pavement/Dustdevils bassist Mark Ibold, a member of Sonic Youth's touring band for the past few years.

The band's current extracurricular activities are particularly interesting.  The Kunsthalle in Dusseldorf, Germany is now hosting the touring museum exhibition SONIC YOUTH ETC.:  SENSATIONAL FIX, which focuses on the band's multidisciplinary work since the band's formation in 1981, including their collaborations with visual artists, filmmakers, designers and musicians.  Kim Gordon launches a clothing line, Mirror/Dash, at Urban Outfitters on February 16, and is showing at The Armory Show in NYC March 5-8.   Lee Ranaldo, with co-conspirator Leah Singer, just opened installations at the Konsthall in Stockholm and the CNEAI in Paris, and he has a piece in the  travelling exhibition "Bad Moon Rising 3", currently at Boots Contemporary Art Space in St. Louis.   A Beck/Sonic Youth split 7" is being released by Matador on April 18 for Record Store Day.  And the band recently collaborated with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (along with former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones and mixed-media sound composer Takehisa Kosugi) on a work celebrating, and being performed for, Cunningham's 90th birthday on April 16 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Upcoming SY shows include April gigs in Austria and Germany (including the closing of SENSATIONAL FIX in Dusseldorf) and May 16 at the No Fun Festival in Brooklyn.  The will be touring throughout the summer in support of 'The Eternal'.

More information on these and the many, many other activities since the 2006 release of their last album, 'Rather Ripped', can be found here.

Of 'The Eternal', Matador's Gerard Cosloy says, "We've not had a record in our recent history that's been the subject of nearly as much speculation and anticipation.  Suffice to say we're pretty amazed at the way the band delivered something this neoteric while still sounding like, well, themselves.  Less of a reinvention and perhaps more to do with a particularly awesome dozen songs."

Matador will shortly announce a Buy Early Get Now opportunity for the album with some very interesting bonus material.

Sonic Youth are:

Steve Shelley

Lee Ranaldo

Kim Gordon

Thurston Moore

Mark Ibold

Track listing:

 

1. Sacred Trickster

2. Anti-Orgasm

3. Leaky Lifeboat(for Gregory Corso)

4. Antenna

5. What We Know

6. Calming The Snake

7. Poison Arrow

8. Malibu Gas Station

9. Thunderclap For Bobby Pyn

10. No Way

11. Walkin Blue

12. Massage The History
 

THE HORRORS

NEW ALBUM – ‘PRIMARY COLOURS’

RELEASED ON XL RECORDINGS – 4TH MAY 2009

The Horrors make their eagerly awaited return with a new album on XL Recordings on the 4th of May 2009.

‘Primary Colours’, the follow up to their 2007 debut ‘Strange House’, features ten tracks and was recorded last Summer with Chris Cunningham and Portishead’s Geoff Barrow.

The first single ‘Sea Within A Sea’, their first release since 2007’s ‘She Is The New Thing’, was recorded last northern Summer with Portishead’s Geoff Barrow and will be exclusively available to download at thehorrors.co.uk and iTunes.

Coming in at nearly seven minutes long and accompanied by a video, directed by filmmaker and The Jesus And The Mary Chain founder, Douglas Hart, the new single is the first taste of what to expect from the bands second album ‘Primary Colours’ which is set for release on XL in May.

The Horrors line up of Faris Badwan – Vocals, Tom Furse – Bass / Synths, Joshua Third - Guitar, Spider Webb – Organ / Bass and Coffin Joe – Drums will announce live dates in the very near future.

WWW.thehorrors.co.uk

PEACHES – ‘I FEEL CREAM’


The new album released Monday 4th May

CD / Vinyl / Download

Peaches has never been afraid to be different – to challenge people’s opinions and perceptions of her as an artist. With her pioneering electro-punk sound that now seems to have taken hold amongst a new breed of female stars, Peaches now seems as relevant to the musical landscape as ever before.

On her new album “I Feel Cream” she does it again, this time producing, along with the likes of simian mobile disco, soulwax, Digitalism and drums of death, her most pop-sounding album to date. That’s not to say she’s mellowing or taking things easy. Far from it in fact.

The beats remain as harsh and uncompromising as ever but with a new-found melodic groove that has only been previously hinted at. A perfect example of this is opening track ‘Serpentine,’ the title track ‘I Feel Cream’ or the luscious synth-pop of ‘Lose You,’ which sees Peaches deliver one of her most delicate and graceful vocal performances yet. Of course, she still retains that lyrical bite – in ‘Billionaire’ (featuring Shunda K of Yo Majesty) she sings of how “You do diddly-squat / No Plot / You took a shot / But forgot you’re the fly that I squat.”

Peaches has also enlisted the German rock band Sweet Machine who will act as her session band when she tours later in the year who also accompanied her on her last NZ tour! Fantastic!

Jarvis Cocker

has an as yet, untitled second solo album, which is due for release through Rough Trade in the late autumn (southern hemisphere styles).

Dear All,

please find below some note written by Jarvis on the upcoming album

NOTES ON THE ALBUM SO FAR

In January of this year we went to the United States to record at Steve Albini’s studio, Electrical Audio, in Chicago. Between the 3rd & the 24th of January we recorded 15. I’m sorry that you can’t hear them yet but due to the idiosyncratic way in which Electrical Audio functions, the whole record will not be fully mixed until the 25th of March. Ho-Hum. (I hope this is not coming across like a school-kid’s excuse for not handing his homework in on time)
 

Please allow me to anticipate some of the questions you might have:

1 – WHY CHICAGO? WHY STEVE ALBINI?

Last year we were invited to play at the Pitchfork festival in Chicago during July. Steve Mackey (he plays the bass, you know) suggested that we try recording some songs with Steve Albini whilst we were in town. This made sense on many levels – to go all that way just to play one show seemed a bit wasteful  (eco-awareness) Plus, I had already decided that I wanted this record to be more of a group effort than the last one. So we had worked songs out in rehearsal rather than me delivering them fully-written & now I wanted to record them in an environment where we could all play at the same time & hopefully capture something of the spirit of a band all working together, all aiming in the same direction (though at what I really couldn’t say). Electrical Audio (Albini’s studio) is specifically designed to record bands in that way.

 Plus, it was very cheap.

(The two songs we tried out in July worked out , so we booked time in January to finish the album. The pound collapsed against the dollar in the interim).

 

2 – WHO DOES WHAT ON THE SONGS RECORDED SO FAR?

Jarvis sings & plays various bits & pieces.

Steve Mackey plays the bass

Ross Orton plays the drums

Simon Stafford plays keyboards & sings backing vocals

Tim McCall plays the guitar in the right-hand speaker

Martin Craft plays the guitar in the left-hand speaker + occasional keyboards & backing vocals

This applies to all the songs so far except “Pilchard” where Jarvis plays the guitar in the left-hand speaker & Simon & Martin had a lie-down.

Jarvis also played the synthesiser on “Fuckingsong” & “You’re in my Eyes(Discosong)”.

Extra musicians:

Daniel Knox sings backing vocals on “Angela” & “Hold Still”

Mary Lattimore plays harp on “Hold Still” & “You’re in my Eyes (Discosong)”

Yvonne Gage, Leveeta Renee Robinson & Shawn Roberts are the heavenly choir on “You’re in my Eyes (Discosong)”.

3 – HAS JARVIS GONE ROCK?

No – but during the course of touring his last record he discovered that , with this band, he COULD rock & so he’d be a fool not to. (When the situation demanded it).

4 – WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF THE SONGS ON THE ALBUM?

Hmmm – that’s a toughie. Especially seeing as the track-listing hasn’t been finalised yet – but I’ll tell you a bit about all the other songs we recorded.( They’ll all see the light of day in some shape or form, anyway.) SLUSH is a song I wrote whilst aboard a ship that was sailing up the west coast of Greenland last year. I guess that slush will be the ultimate outcome of global warming.  CAUCASIAN BLUES is an attempt  to understand the pain of a man whose Honda Goldwing has run out of petrol. I NEVER SAID I WAS DEEP  is the phrase that I would like carved on my tombstone. GIRLS LIKE IT TOO takes its title from a phrase in one of the speeches made at John Peel’s funeral. THE NIGHT THEY LET ME OUT OF THE HOME portrays the difficulties of using public transport whilst on crutches. APPARENTLY  is about how you can be in love with someone without realising it. I FOUND MYSELF LOOKING FOR GOD lists unlikely places one can look for spiritual enlightenment  & HOMEWRECKER! is an absolute racket featuring saxophone from Steve Mackay (he played on The Stooges’ “Funhouse”, you know) .

The record won’t feature all of these songs (that would make it too long) but we will have a finalised running order available from March 26th onwards if you are interested. (+ you can hear all the songs then, too).

& FINALLY – WHAT’S WITH THE BEARD?

I grew it to keep my face warm in the Arctic & then I kind of got attached to it. (The amount of grey in it horrified me at first but now I think it acts as a handy reminder of my own mortality.)

 

ends

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