Lucy Dacus - "Hot & Heavy" Lyric Video
(transcription by Jacob Blizard)
Following Lucy Dacus' video for "Hot & Heavy" (co-directed by Marin Leong) earlier this month, this morning marks the release of a lyric clip for the second single from Dacus' eagerly anticipated 3rd album, 'Home Video' (out June 25).
stream/download "Hot & Heavy"
presave/preorder 'Home Video'
Lucy Dacus On Tour
Friday, September 10 The National, Richmond VA * - co-headlining with Julien Baker
Saturday, September 11 The National, Richmond VA * - co-headlining with Julien Baker
Monday, September 13 Haw River Ballroom, Saxapahaw NC %
Tuesday, September 14 Terminal West, Atlanta GA %
Wednesday, September 15 Brooklyn Bowl, Nashville TN %
Friday, September 17 Trees, Dallas TX %
Saturday, September 18 White Oak Music Hall (Downstairs), Houston TX %
Sunday, September 19 Scoot Inn, Austin TX %
Monday, September 20 Paper Tiger, San Antonio TX %
Wednesday, September 22 191 Toole, Tucson AZ %
Friday, September 24 The Theatre at Ace Hotel, Los Angeles CA %
Saturday, September 25 The Observatory OC, Santa Ana CA
Monday, September 27 The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA %
Thursday, September 30 Hollywood Theatre, Vancouver BC $
Friday, October 1 Wonder Ballroom, Portland OR $
Saturday, October 2 Neptune Theatre, Seattle WA $
Tuesday, October 5 Urban Lounge, Salt Lake City UT $
Friday, October 8 The Englert Theatre, Iowa City IA $
Saturday, October 9 First Avenue, Minneapolis MN $
Monday, October 11 The Vic Theatre, Chicago IL
Tuesday, October 12 Newport Music Hall, Columbus OH $
Thursday, October 14 The Opera House, Toronto ON $
Friday, October 15 L’Astral, Montreal QC $
Saturday, October 16 House of Blues, Boston MA $
Monday, October 18 Higher Ground, Burlington VT $
Wednesday, October 20 Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA ^
Friday, October 22 9:30 Club, Washington DC $
Monday, October 25 Brooklyn Steel, Brooklyn NY
* w/ Julien Baker, Special Guests
% w/ Bachelor
$ w/ Bartees Strange
^ w/ Shamir
Lucy Dacus Online
Website
Gang Of Four - 'Entertainment!' and 'Solid Gold' Remastered LP/CD Editions Out Today
Two of Gang of Four’s critical early works, 'Entertainment! '(1979) and 'Solid Gold' (1981), emastered from the original analog tapes are available today on LP and compact disc.
'Entertainment!'and 'Solid Gold' are also collected in 'GANG OF FOUR: 77-81', available today on for the first time as a CD box set.
(The CD version of the box will not include the badges or the C90 cassette included in the LP edition. The demo recordings will instead be made available through a download code.)
stream / purchase : 'Entertainment!'
stream / purchase : 'Solid Gold'
stream / purchase 'Gang of Four '77-'81'
A new tribute album, 'The Problem of Leisure: A Celebration of Andy Gill and Gang of Four', will be released in May via Gill Music and features contributions from Flea and John Frusciante, Warpaint, La Roux, and more.
Gang of Four '77-81 online :
website
Gang Of Four / Matador Records
Gang of Four official Facebook
Gang of Four official Twitter
Gang of Four official Instagram
Spoon - 'Telephono' 25th Anniversary, 25% Off Sale
today marks the 25th anniversary of Spoon’s debut album, ‘Telephono’.
Grab it on your format of choice for 25% off now thru Sunday night.
Spoon online :
Official Site
Bandcamp
Mdou Moctar - "Live In Niamey, Niger", Livestream Tonight at 8pm EST
(poster art : David Coltun)
Mdou Moctar's live streamed concert, Mdou Moctar – Live in Niamey, Niger. premieres tonight at 8pm eastern. Filmed late last year, the set features Moctar’s full band including Mikey Coltun (bass + production), Souleymane Ibrahim (drums), and Ahmoudou Madassane (guitar).
presave / preorder 'Afrique Victime'
Mdou Moctar online
Official site
VIDEO : Lucy Dacus - "Hot & Heavy" on CBS' "The Late Show WIth Stephen Colbert"
Last night, Lucy Dacus and her band performed the new song, "Hot & Heavy" on CBS' "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert". "Hot & Heavy" is the second single from Dacus' forthcoming 3rd album, 'Home Video', coming June 25.
stream/download "Hot & Heavy"
presave/preorder 'Home Video'
Lucy Dacus On Tour (tickets on sale, Friday April 16 at 10am local time)
Friday, September 10 The National, Richmond VA * - co-headlining with Julien Baker
Saturday, September 11 The National, Richmond VA * - co-headlining with Julien Baker
Monday, September 13 Haw River Ballroom, Saxapahaw NC %
Tuesday, September 14 Terminal West, Atlanta GA %
Wednesday, September 15 Brooklyn Bowl, Nashville TN %
Friday, September 17 Trees, Dallas TX %
Saturday, September 18 White Oak Music Hall (Downstairs), Houston TX %
Sunday, September 19 Scoot Inn, Austin TX %
Monday, September 20 Paper Tiger, San Antonio TX %
Wednesday, September 22 191 Toole, Tucson AZ %
Friday, September 24 The Theatre at Ace Hotel, Los Angeles CA %
Saturday, September 25 The Observatory OC, Santa Ana CA
Monday, September 27 The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA %
Thursday, September 30 Hollywood Theatre, Vancouver BC $
Friday, October 1 Wonder Ballroom, Portland OR $
Saturday, October 2 Neptune Theatre, Seattle WA $
Tuesday, October 5 Urban Lounge, Salt Lake City UT $
Friday, October 8 The Englert Theatre, Iowa City IA $
Saturday, October 9 First Avenue, Minneapolis MN $
Monday, October 11 The Vic Theatre, Chicago IL
Tuesday, October 12 Newport Music Hall, Columbus OH $
Thursday, October 14 The Opera House, Toronto ON $
Friday, October 15 L’Astral, Montreal QC $
Saturday, October 16 House of Blues, Boston MA $
Monday, October 18 Higher Ground, Burlington VT $
Wednesday, October 20 Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA ^
Friday, October 22 9:30 Club, Washington DC $
Monday, October 25 Brooklyn Steel, Brooklyn NY
* co headlining with Julien Baker
% w/ Bachelor
$ w/ Bartees Strange
^ w/ Shamir
Lucy Dacus Online
Website
Lucy Dacus - 'Home Video' Coming June 25
"Hot & Heavy", Directed by Lucy Dacus & Marin Leong, Co-directed by Jordan Rodericks.
(photo : Ebru Yildiz)
Lucy Dacus's long awaited 3rd album, 'Home Video', is out June 25th, and today releases the lead single/video, “Hot & Heavy,” which she’ll perform tonight on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert". Additionally, she has confirmed a September/October 2021 North American tour (dates below). The follow-up to 2018’s 'Historian 'and her 2016 debut 'No Burden', 'Home Video' was built on Dacus’ interrogation of her coming-of-age years in Richmond, Virginia. Many of the songs start the way a memoir might, and all of them have the compassion, humor, and honesty of the best autobiographical writing. These songs capture that specific moment in time growing up where emotions and relationships start becoming more complex. They capture the joys, the excitement, the confusion, and even the heartbreak of going through the process of discovering who you are and where people fit in your life and where you fit in theirs. Most importantly and mysteriously, this album displays Dacus’s ability to use the personal as portal into the universal.
“I thought I was writing ‘Hot & Heavy’ about an old friend, but I realized along the way that it was just about me outgrowing past versions of myself,” explains Dacus. “So much of life is submitting to change and saying goodbye even if you don't want to. Now whenever I go to places that used to be significant to me, it feels like trespassing the past. I know that the teen version of me wouldn't approve of me now, and that's embarrassing and a little bit heartbreaking, even if I know intellectually that I like my life and who I am.”
The accompanying, self-directed video was shot in the historic Byrd Theatre in Richmond where Dacus often saw movies during her adolescent years.
“I knew I wanted to include some of the home video footage that my dad took of me while I was growing up. I wanted to visualize the moment when you first reflect on your childhood, which I think can also be the moment that childhood is over. For me, I feel like there was a hard switch when I started releasing music, when my identity went from being a personal project to something publicly observed and reflected. I asked my family (shoutout to my grandma) and some of my closest friends to be extras because they're the people that knew me before that switch. I may have dropped out of film school, but I still love making movies and had a really fun time directing this one.”
stream/download "Hot & Heavy"
presave/preorder 'Home Video'
Home Video Tracklist
01. Hot & Heavy
02. Christine
03. First Time
04. VBS
05. Cartwheel
06. Thumbs
07. Going Going Gone
08. Partner in Crime
09. Brando
10. Please Stay
11. Triple Dog Dare
'Home Video' : a Foreword
There are a thousand truisms about home and childhood, none of them true but all of them honest. It’s natural to want to tidy those earliest memories into a story so palatable and simple that you never have to read again. A home video promises to give your memories back with a certificate of fact— but the footage isn’t the feeling. Who is just out of frame? What does the soft focus obscure? How did the recording itself change the scene?
Some scrutinize the past and some never look back and Lucy Dacus, a lifelong writer and close reader, has long been the former sort. “The past doesn’t change,” Dacus said on a video call during that interminable winter of video calls. “Even if a memory is of a time I didn’t feel safe, there’s safety in looking at it, in its stability.”
This new gift from Dacus, 'Home Video', her third album, was built on an interrogation of her coming-of-age years in Richmond, Virginia. Many songs start the way a memoir might—“In the summer of ’07 I was sure I’d go to heaven, but I was hedging my bets at VBS”—and all of them have the compassion, humor, and honesty of the best autobiographical writing. Most importantly and mysteriously, this album displays Dacus’s ability to use the personal as portal into the universal. “I can’t hide behind generalizations or fiction anymore,” Dacus says, though talking about these songs, she admits, makes her ache.
While there’s a nostalgic tint to much of Dacus’s work, the obliquely told stories in past songs are depicted here with greater specificity. "Triple Dog Dare" recounts young, queer love complicated and forbidden by religion. The toxic relationship depicted in "Partner in Crime" is filled with pining, deceit, and meeting curfew. (“My heart’s on my sleeve/ it’s embarrassing/ the pulpy thing, beating.”) "Christine" is an elegiac ballad about a close friend vanishing into an inhibiting relationship.
As is often the case with Dacus, these songs are a study in contrast. In "Hot & Heavy " she sings powerfully about blushing and diffidence, while the song "Thumbs" contains an elegant fantasy about the brutal murder of a close friend’s no-good father. After performing "Thumbs" during the nearly nonstop tours for her first two albums, it quickly became a white whale to Dacus fans, who have been counting the days until its release just as we’ve all awaited the end of this endless quarantine.
While all that touring made Lucy long to re-root in her hometown, her sudden acclaim filled Richmond with funhouse distortions of herself. People she didn’t know were looking at her like they knew her better than she knew herself. Strangers showed up at her front door. “You used to be so sweet,” she sings on the opening track, “now you're a firecracker on a crowded street.” That truism, both true and false—you can’t go home again—seemed to taunt her at the very time she needed home the most.
In August 2019, after a too much touring then a month of silence, it was time to go back to Trace Horse Studio in Nashville—Jacob Blizard, Collin Pastore, and Jake Finch, her loyal friends and collaborators were at her side again. Dacus’s boygenius bandmates, Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker sang a loving chorus on "Please Stay" and "Going Going Gone" while each recorded solo songs during the same session. Dacus’s resulting record—full of arrhythmic heartbeat percussion and backgrounds of water-warped pipe organ— was mixed by Shawn Everett and mastered by Bob Ludwig.
Loyal Dacus listeners may notice that the melodies here are lower and more contained, at times feeling as intimate as a whisper. The vulnerability of these songs, so often about the intense places where different sorts of love meet and warp, required this approach. “When you told me ‘bout your first time, a soccer player at the senior high,” she sings in "Cartwheel", “I felt my body crumple to the floor. Betrayal like I’d never felt before.” Yet in "Partner in Crime", Dacus marries content and form in a strikingly different way, using uncharacteristic autotune in a song about duplicity and soft coercion.
That 'Home Video' arrives at the end of this locked down, fearful era seems as preordained as the messages within. “I don’t necessarily think that I’m supposed to understand the songs just because I made them,” Dacus says into a screen, “I feel like there’s this person who has been in me my whole life and I’m doing my best to represent them.” After more than a year of being homebound, in a time when screens and video calls were sometimes our only form of contact, looking backward was a natural habit for many. If we haven’t learned it already, this album is a gorgeous example of the transformative power of vulnerability. Dacus’s voice, both audible and on the page, has a healer’s power to soothe and ground and reckon.
—Catherine Lacey, February 2021, Chicago, IL
Lucy Dacus On Tour
Friday, September 10 The National, Richmond VA * - co-headlining with Julien Baker
Saturday, September 11 The National, Richmond VA * - co-headlining with Julien Baker
Monday, September 13 Haw River Ballroom, Saxapahaw NC %
Tuesday, September 14 Terminal West, Atlanta GA %
Wednesday, September 15 Brooklyn Bowl, Nashville TN %
Friday, September 17 Trees, Dallas TX %
Saturday, September 18 White Oak Music Hall (Downstairs), Houston TX %
Sunday, September 19 Scoot Inn, Austin TX %
Monday, September 20 Paper Tiger, San Antonio TX %
Wednesday, September 22 191 Toole, Tucson AZ %
Friday, September 24 The Theatre at Ace Hotel, Los Angeles CA %
Saturday, September 25 The Observatory OC, Santa Ana CA
Monday, September 27 The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA %
Thursday, September 30 Hollywood Theatre, Vancouver BC $
Friday, October 1 Wonder Ballroom, Portland OR $
Saturday, October 2 Neptune Theatre, Seattle WA $
Tuesday, October 5 Urban Lounge, Salt Lake City UT $
Friday, October 8 The Englert Theatre, Iowa City IA $
Saturday, October 9 First Avenue, Minneapolis MN $
Monday, October 11 The Vic Theatre, Chicago IL
Tuesday, October 12 Newport Music Hall, Columbus OH $
Thursday, October 14 The Opera House, Toronto ON $
Friday, October 15 L’Astral, Montreal QC $
Saturday, October 16 House of Blues, Boston MA $
Monday, October 18 Higher Ground, Burlington VT $
Wednesday, October 20 Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA ^
Friday, October 22 9:30 Club, Washington DC $
Monday, October 25 Brooklyn Steel, Brooklyn NY
* w/ Julien Baker, Special Guests
% w/ Bachelor
$ w/ Bartees Strange
^ w/ Shamir
Lucy Dacus Online
Website
Spoon - "The Way We Get By", featured on "Shameless" Series FInale, 'Kill The Moonlight', 25% Off Sale
To celebrate the exceedingly prominent placement of Spoon’s “The Way We Get By” (as rendered by the show’s cast) in last night’s series finale of Showime’s ‘Shameless’, ‘Kill The Moonlight’ is on sale for 25% off the LP and CD versions now thru Friday the 17th.
"The Way We Get By", directed by Steve Hanft
purchase 'Kill The Moonlight' on LP or CD, 25% off until April 17
Spoon online :
Official Site
Bandcamp
Coming July 23 : DARKSIDE - 'Spiral'
"The Limit"
(photo : Jed DeMoss)
On July 23, DARKSIDE will release its much-anticipated second full-length, 'Spiral', via Matador Records. Today, you can listen to new song “The Limit”.
DARKSIDE is an American rock band formed in Providence, Rhode Island in 2011. The group consists of Chilean electronic musician & vocalist Nicolás Jaar and American multi-instrumentalist Dave Harrington. Jaar and Harrington first met while studying in Providence through their common friend and saxophonist Will Epstein. In the summer of 2011, they toured Europe and Australia in support of Jaar's breakthrough debut album Space Is Only Noise.
Upon returning to Providence, they continued to write together, releasing their self-titled EP in 2012 and their critically acclaimed debut album 'Psychic' on Matador in October 2013. The album was met with glowing reviews, including a 9.0 from Pitchfork and the New York Times calling it "the soundtrack to a lost David Lynch sci-fi movie."
In the years that followed the 'Psychic' tour in 2014, the musicians moved on parallel and occasionally intersecting paths. Jaar would release five albums under his name and two collections of club music as Against All Logic. Harrington worked as a producer and composer, releasing two albums with his Dave Harrington Group. During that time he also played some 300 shows in NYC and Brooklyn, becoming deeply entrenched with a wide-ranging community of improvisers and collaborators, performing and recording with Yuka Honda, Brian Chase, Ilhan Ersahin, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Joe Russo, Innov Gnawa, Angel Deradoorian, The Master Musicians of Jajouka, Nels Cline, and more.
In the summer of 2018, Harrington and Jaar rented a small house on Lenni-Lenape territory, which is present-day Flemington, New Jersey. The group spent a week there, making a song a day. While it would take another year and a half to complete their second album, six songs from the band's new record 'Spiral were written and recorded during this initial session.
"From the beginning, DARKSIDE has been our jam band. Something we did on days off. When we reconvened, it was because we really couldn't wait to jam together again,” says Jaar. Harrington echoes this, “It felt like it was time again,” he said. "We do things in this band that we would never do on our own. DARKSIDE is the third being in the room that just kind of occurs when we make music together."
presave / preorder 'Spiral'
stream / download "The Limit"
Tracklist
- Narrow Road
- The Limit
- The Question Is To See It All
- Lawmaker
- I’m the Echo
- Spiral
- Liberty Bell
- Inside Is Out There
- Only Young
Darkside online :
website
Darkside at Matador
Mdou Moctar - "Live in Niamey, Niger" + "Afrique Victime" (Live)
(Credit: WH Moustapha)
On Thursday, April 22nd, guitarist and songwriter Mdou Moctar will broadcast a live streamed concert, Mdou Moctar – Live in Niamey, Niger. Filmed late last year, the set features Moctar’s full band including Mikey Coltun (bass + production), Souleymane Ibrahim (drums), and Ahmoudou Madassane (guitar).
Purchase tickets for the live-stream HERE.
(Poster: David Coltun)
“In winter 2020, the Mdou Moctar band met up in Niamey, the capital of Niger, to record a few songs in anticipation of the release of, Afrique Victime,” explains Coltun. “We were staying on the outskirts of town at a friend's home. One day, we quietly set up in front of the house to film a few songs. Despite our relative isolation, the noise of the band attracted a crowd. What started as the four of us simply playing a few songs for a camera turned into a three-night run of rowdy concerts, bringing in hundreds of eager listeners. Each night, kids from all over the city would line up at our door, rushing over after their final evening prayer. These performances were completely spontaneous and wholly unplanned. Thanks to the audience in Niamey, we were able to capture the spectacular energy of a typical Niamey concert for you. We're thrilled about it and hope you will be, too. Enjoy!”
The concert will stream via Bandcamp Live and will launch at 8 PM EDT. Tickets are $10. A replay will remain available for 24 hours for global audiences to view. As a preview, the band have released a performance of new single and album title track “Afrique Victime.”
Footage shot by: Mamadou Halidou & WH Moustapha / Dynamique image
Audio Recorded by: Mikey Coltun
Mixed and Mastered by Seth Manchester at Machines with Magnets
Mdou Moctar online
Official site
Julien Baker : 2021-22 Tour Dates, Appearing On "The Late Late Show WIth James Corden"
Julien Baker has confirmed tour dates in both North America and Europe. with thehe first leg commencing in Birmingham, AL on September 3. The European tour starts on April 15, 2022 in Utrecht. Tickets are on sale Friday, April 9 and will be available www.julienbaker.com.
Tonight (Wednesday, April 7) Julien Baker will be performing on CBS' " The Late Late Show with James Corden" (12:37 am eastern, 11:37 pm central time)
Julien Baker on Tour :
Friday, September 3 Saturn, Birmingham AL +
Saturday, September 4 Variety Playhouse, Atlanta GA +
Sunday, September 5 Bonaroo Festival, Manchester TN +
Tuesday, September 7 Orange Peel, Asheville NC +
Wednesday, September 8 Haw River Ballroom, Saxapahaw NC +
Monday, September 13 9:30 Club, Washington DC +
Tuesday, September 14 Beacon Theater, New York NY +
Wednesday, September 15 Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia PA +
Friday, September 17 House of Blues, Boston MA +
Saturday, September 18 Calvin Theater, Northampton MA +
Monday, September 20 Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto ON +
Wednesday, September 22 Metro, Chicago IL +
Thursday, September 23 Metro, Chicago IL +
Friday, September 24 First Avenue, Minneapolis MN +
Saturday, September 25 Majestic Theatre, Madison WI +
Monday, September 27 Majestic Theater, Detroit MI +
Tuesday, September 28 Newport Music Hall, Columbus OH +
Wednesday, September 29 Mr Smalls Theatre, Pittsburgh PA +
Wednesday, October 27 Stubbs, Austin TX #
Thursday, October 28 Granada Theater, Dallas TX #
Friday, October 29 Heights Theater, Houston TX #
Saturday, October 30 Paper Tiger, San Antonio TX #
Monday, November 1 Van Buren, Phoenix AZ #
Tuesday, November 2 The Observatory, San Diego CA #
Thursday, November 4 The Wiltern, Los Angeles CA #
Saturday, November 6 Fox Theater, Oakland CA #
Monday, November 8 Aladdin Theater, Portland OR #
Tuesday, November 9 Hollywood Theatre, Vancouver BC #
Wednesday, November 10 Moore Theatre, Seattle WA #
Friday, November 12 The Complex, Salt Lake City UT #
Monday, November 15 The Granada, Lawrence KS #
Tuesday, November 16 Delmar Hall, St. Louis MO #
Friday, April 15 Tivoli, Utrecht NL *
Saturday, April 16 Vera, Groningen NL *
Sunday, April 17 Fabrik, Hamburg DE *
Tuesday, April 19 Vega, Copenhagen DK *
Wednesday, April 20 Pustervik, Gothenburg SE *
Thursday, April 21 Parkteatret, Oslo NO *
Saturday, April 23 Nalen, Stockholm SE *
Monday, April 25 Mejeriet, Lund SE *
Thursday, April 28 Festsaal Kreuzberg, Berlin DE *
Friday, April 29 Rock Café, Prague CZ *
Saturday, April 30 Arena, Vienna AT *
Sunday, May 1 Rockhouse, Salzburg AT *
Wednesday, May 4 Padova Hall, Padova IT *
Friday, May 6 Bogen F, Zurich CH *
Saturday, May 7 Manufaktur, Schorndorf DE *
Sunday, May 8 Technikum, Munich DE *
Tuesday, May 10 Kulturkirche, Cologne DE *
Friday, May 13 Le Trabendo, Paris FR *
Saturday, May 14 Ancienne Belgique, Brussels BE *
Wednesday, May 18 Electric Ballroom, London UK *
Thursday, May 19 Leeds Irish Centre, Leeds UK *
Saturday, May 21 Whelan’s, Dublin IE *
Sunday, May 22 Whelan’s, Dublin IE *
Tuesday, May 24 St. Luke’s, Glasgow UK *
Wednesday, May 25 Gorilla, Manchester UK *
Sunday, May 29 Teatro Kapital, Madrid ES
Monday, May 30 La Rambleta, Valencia ES
Tuesday, May 31 Sala Apolo, Barcelona ES
+ with special guests Thao and Katie Malco
# with special guests Dehd and Katie Malco
* with Ratboys
stream / purchase 'Little Oblivions'
Julien Baker Online
Website
Horsegirl Signs With Matador, Livestream Taking Place April 12
Chicago’s Horsegirl, the trio of Penelope Lowenstein (she/her), Nora Cheng (she/her), and Gigi Reece (they/them), have signed to Matador. In conjunction with the signing, the band will perform a free livestream concert on April 12th at 7pm EST via Vans Channel 66. This broadcast is the first time many outside of Chicago will have the chance to see Horsegirl play live.
Raised in Chicago, Lowenstein, Reece and Cheng each started playing music at a young age. Lowenstein and Cheng met through a local music program, where they initially bonded over their similar taste in records. After frequenting local shows together, and Reece joining one night, they quickly became friends who fell in love with discovering music, sending each other songs and videos from now defunct DIY bands and scenes. There was an immediate collective vision developing that would inform what would soon become Horsegirl. The idea of playing together felt very natural and fun, and a further way to explore music they loved together. Now together for almost two years, the trio have played contemporary art museums, all ages venues, and house parties.
Horsegirl operate as a true unit, with a young and punk-minded aesthetic. There’s an edginess to their overall lyrics and sound, which feature dreamy guitars and distinct dual vocal melodies by Cheng and Lowenstein, and the propulsive rhythmic drums of Reece. While they’ve only released three songs thus far, they’ve already garnered praise from scores of media outlets worldwide. The first pressing of their 7”, “Ballroom Dance Scene” b/w “Sea Life Sandwich Boy,” (Sonic Cathedral) sold out within 24 hours.
“Today is Tuesday, a wonderful day for some wonderful news. We are very excited to announce that Horsegirl has signed to Matador Records.
Two years ago when we were underclassmen, we pooled together our money to see Yo La Tengo live (Ira Kaplan handed us his guitar). That fall we played a show in the street with a Stephen Malkmus poster taped to the kick drum. When Belle & Sebastian played the entirety of If You’re Feeling Sinister at Pitchfork, we stood in the front and said Judy had a dream of Horsegirl. Matador has been formative for our relationship as friends and musicians, and we feel insanely grateful to be working with them.
We are really appreciative of everybody who has amplified our work in these past few months, the people who’ve found us and understand what we’re going for, and the Chicago kids who’ve understood all along.
To the adults at the Yo La Tengo show who said we were too young to like good music (and made fun of Penelope for bringing her backpack): kids are going to bring punk-rock back.”
Horsegirl online
Bandcamp
Mdou Moctar - "Afrique Victime" video, 'Afrique Victime' Cell Phone Edition
"Afrique Victime"
Directed by: Cem Misirlioglu
Footage shot by: Mamadou Halidou & WH Moustapha (Dynamique Image) and Mikey Coltun in Niamey, Niger, winter 2020
(photo : WH Moustapha)
Mdou Moctar returns with the tour de force title track from his new album 'Afrique Victime', released May 21st on Matador Records.
“The wind born in Tunisia spread all over Arabia / Africa is a victim of so many crimes / If we stay silent it will be the end of us / Why is this happening?” sings Moctar on the heartfelt yet defiantly incandescent seven-and-a-half-minute rallying cry as it scales mournful chanting, hypnotically propulsive groove and an interstellar coda of Moctar’s sky-bound guitar work. The accompanying video for the radio edit of the track was filmed in Niamey, the capital of Niger, where the band briefly convened in November for a set of impromptu performances.
Says Moctar: "’Afrique Victime’ is a message to all of the countries with money and power who come into Africa and kill the leaders who try to empower the people and lead revolutions. This pushes the area into danger and instability and emboldens the terrorists, and it’s the people who suffer and have no justice. Africa is innocent. The French use our uranium, but 90% of the people here don't have electricity. Imagine."
Moctar recently made a special guest appearance on Off White’s Imaginary TV channel, helmed by designer Virgil Abloh.
In addition to vinyl, CD, picture disk and digital formats, 'Afrique Victime' will be available as a special and limited cellphone edition. Hearkening back to the way Moctar's music originally spread and proliferated across the Sahara via word-of-mouth Bluetooth mobile phone swaps, this collector's edition of Afrique Victime arrives pre-loaded onto a classic Nokia 6120 handset and specially mastered for it.
Mdou Moctar will be appearing at the 2021 edition of the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival this coming September 3.
stream / download "Afrique Victime"
presave / preorder 'Afrique Victime'
Mdou Moctar online:
Official site