New Music SYCTB 14 Oct 2014
In this week’s Sounds You Should Try & Buy we’ll go to the almost surreal dusk to dawn side of singer/songwriter, check out a threesome from Portland that are making it too easy to dig ‘em and a look at a Scottish alt-pop duo doin’ it alright and we dig it.
So, if you have time to take a break from watching Walking Dead and drinking yourself silly, let us begin to dig into what new music we’re listening to this week and thoughts from around the web.
(For more infos, click the album title.)
Pauline Andrès – ‘All Them Ghosts’
From the amazing EP Fuck You French Girl (2013) to the new All Them Ghosts full length, Pauline Andrès has found that the serrated edges of life dig deep. All Them Ghosts isn’t a clear cut folk album. It goes darker, it swims and haunts in late night drink. Andrès pulls no punches and why would she? This isn’t an over-polished pop album that will please the masses. They wouldn’t be able to handle the weight. Andrès fascinates in lyrical truths. Her truths and well-traveled soul are going to be heard via the stark growls from shadows of places and times the narrator has toiled.
Also check out Howlin’ Lord
Not an easy listen first go but once you wrap your head around Pauline Andrès, you’ll never ever forget what you’ve just experienced.
I asked Pauline Andrès about the struggles put into this album, “I always say this record is cursed because the whole process of making it was just so painful and every time I seemed to have something organized with the band, the engineer or anything under control really, something bad would happen. The entire year it took to make the record is a succession of not-so-funny anecdotes from me being too sick to sing in the studio, our drummer suddenly having to leave the country and takes being badly engineered, our first master engineer gone missing in action and of course, money getting low with all that…I’m amazed the album is actually coming out. But I’m really glad it’s finally out there, because even all the blood and the tears we put in it (and the booze, let’s be honest) is paying off. It’s an album I’m proud of and it makes me wanna get back to work and nail that second one.”
Greylag – ‘Greylag’ (Dead Oceans)
This band is a SoundCloud discovery and this recommendation is based on the two near perfect tracks offered up by their label. If you like your Hellsingland Underground, Beirut and Band of Horses to have the Geister of 70’s country rock then give Greylag an earful, a proper go. We’ll have more about this Portland threesome very soon.
Honeyblood – ‘Honeyblood’ (FatCat)
Scottish duo Honeyblood (Shona McVicar and Stina Tweeddale) have a lot going on. At first glance you may think “Oh God, not another female pop duo!” and that is fair enough but look again. Their unpretentious power-pop, casual clothes and manageable hairstyles make them appear approachable on many levels. Is it deceiving? Probably not, they are less a pre-planned marketing ploy and more of who these two ladies are and hopefully remain. Garage rock pop with little boundaries, exploring the world around them perhaps without fear of trying to fit the mold, whatever that may be…They do not seem to aggressively forcing rockstar on themselves.
You’ll also dig Rich Girls
It isn’t just the band’s accessible without becoming candy music that has peeked my interest but how they present themselves in the media. Open, honest and, again, in awe of the goings on around them. One fine example is this interview Honeyblood vocalist Stina Tweeddale gave Noisey’s Sarina Bloodgood. Stina cited Bikini Kill and Babes In Toyland, talks about the emotions of playing to bigger audiences and how people perceive them, “When I was a kid, I loved girly, punk rock bands like Babes in Toyland and Bikini Kill. All of these bands are really important to me because at school, there was definitely that aspect of you can’t play guitar. “What do you need an electric guitar for? You’re a girl.” I got that at school a lot. It made me feel like if these bands that I love can do it, I can, too. That was something that I really connected with and something that is really important to what we do. Generally when you’re on tour, you do find a lot of that and that is just the reality. Especially when you’re on big, long tours and you’re tired, grumpy, and have been driving for hours and some guy gives you attitude. You’re just like fuck you!
“There have been times where people have scoffed at us and I’ve been so angry. But, after we play, they’re usually apologetic and see that we can play. But, mostly the type of stigmatism we get is for not having a bass player. I’ve had a lot of people come up to us and tell us we need to get a bass player. They could just say to me hey, you should be a guy, but instead they say we should have a bass player. [Laughs.] It’s the same deal. I wish that was not true, but it is true. You always get treated differently and I think it’s more difficult as a girl touring because you’re always the minority. (full Q&A here)
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