Hana Vu certainly isn’t one to hold back with the gore, first with the cover for her debut album, Public Storage, and now the disturbing new video for her latest single, ‘Care.’
Inspired by the Artemisia Gentileschi paintings Judith Beheading Holofernes and “Judith, Her Maid and Holofernes' Head, it begins with the LA-based singer/songwriter’s rotting severed head, the events leading up to her murder unfolding in reverse as she sings of feeling discarded amid a simmering rock haze. So an episode of Snapped, but make it into a disaffected indie video you’d see on MTV in the 90s...
‘Care’ is from Vu’s upcoming album, Romanticism, which sees the singer/songwriter trying to ‘convey my perspective as boldly as possible — to succinctly crystallize how it feels to be young, but also to be deeply sad.'
Hana Vu’s Romanticism is out May 3 via Ghostly International.
Isn’t ‘Bluetooth Hell’ just when your connection keeps dropping out?
Riddled with scrappy, lo-fi charm, Glasgow indie band Dancer turn modern angst into a light and springy cut of rollicking garage rock. Frontwoman Georgia Fleet cute through the fuzz with biting snark and wit, sometimes bordering on the absurd with her delightful sing-speak as she longs for a much simpler time, when love wasn’t complicated by the threat of a DM being left on ‘read’ or an unsolicited dick pic... ꒰•⌓•꒱
Old meets new in a glorious clash of cultures in ATARASHII GAKKO!’s new video for ‘Toryanse.’
Inspired by a popular Japanese nursery rhyme often played at crosswalks to signal when it’s safe to walk, the four-piece combine cultural traditions with Brazilian-inspired dance pop as they sing about persevering through tough times. And, naturally, they perform a killer dance routine (✿◠‿◠)
Says the group (via Broadway World):
'Toryanse is a song that combines playful and nostalgic lyrics from Japanese nursery rhymes with vibrant beats of Brazilian phonk. To the four of us, this song reflects the joy and pride growing up in Japan. Come dance with us!'
Read the review for ATARASHII GAKKO’s SNACKTIME EP here.
Dallon Weekes wants to listen to you whisper to him and watch bad movies with you on IDKHow's latest single, 'Downside.'
The singer/multi-instrumentalist is absolutely gaga for his mystery lover, fuelling his desperate longing into a rather upbeat number that recalls the jangling Brit rock of the mid-late 80s with a punkish edge. And with the slight theatrical streak, the track also gives me some early Brobecks vibes...
Says Weekes (via AXS):
'Sometimes we become so enamored with a romantic partner that, for better or for worse, it can be difficult to see the negative aspects of the relationship. Even if you’re looking for them,” says Weekes … “It turned into a song about trying to find the downside in a relationship, but you’re so enamored that you’re unable or unwilling to.'
IDKHow’s GLOOM DIVISION is out now. Read the review for 2020’s Razzmatazz here.
Remember that cover of ‘Burning Down the House’ with The Cardigans and Tom Jones from the 2000s? I do. Yes, I’m that old... (◠﹏◠✿)
Paramore have also covered the Talking Heads track for Everyone’s Getting Involved: A Tribute To Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense, the upcoming tribute album to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the band’s iconic concert film, Stop Making Sense, which is being restored and rereleased by A24.
And it’s a perfect fit with the jaded and snarky throwback rock of the trio’s current sound, keeping true to the original with that staccato guitar rhythm and squelchy groove as Williams puts all her snarl and vibrato into the lyrics. Her voice is positively elastic here, and I love it.
Everyone’s Getting Involved: A Tribute To Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense will also feature BADBADNOTGOOD, Blondshell, El Mató a un Policía Motorizado, girl in red, Jean Dawson the Linda Lindas, Lorde, Miley Cyrus, the National, Toro y Moi and more.
Paramore really should do a full-on 80s cover album... (✿◠‿◠)
Pop has never been more country, and country has never been more pop.
Names like Kacey Musgraves, Maren Morris, Kelsea Ballerini and Morgan Wallen (controversies aside) have well and truly embedded themselves in the mainstream. And, of course, there’s Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, which, despite all the country imagery and distinct country twang, is not a country album, according to the singer.
Country Curious, by singer/actress Lola Kirke, however, is a country album (or EP, to be specific). It’s right there in the title. Her cowgirl journey started long ago: Born in London, raised in New York and moving to Nashville in the middle of a pandemic, developing a love for Tanya Tucker, The Judds and Rosanne Cash's Seven Year Ache along the way. Her second album, Lady for Sale, was even released through Jack White's Third Man Records.
She chronicles this full-on transformation on the EP's first single, 'He Says Y'all,' a feminist take on 'bro-country' delivered with tongue firmly in cheek. Like 2022's Lady for Sale, Kirke turns the campy goodness up to 11 with a rollicking honky tonk groove, ready to move down South and start teasing her hair for a dirty man with a cowboy drawl. I bet she thinks his tractor's sexy, too!
The smoky slow burn of 'All My Exes Live in LA' (featuring Swedish sister duo and fellow lovers of Americana, First Aid Kit) is also fun, flirty and feminist, referencing George Strait as she leaves the freeway littered with broken hearts, heading 'For the mountains or the desert or my mama's or anywhere else.'
‘My House,’ meanwhile, serves absolute cunt when it comes to the traditional country ballad. Instead of begging for her man to come back home, she’s kicking him out and reclaiming her space, singing ''Cause I never have to worry about if you'll come home/I'm not crying over you, now I'm better off alone' with a big damn smile on her faceas she dances around her house while chugging a beer at 10am.
Ending the EP is the slow winding ‘Karma,’ featuring the aforementioned Rosanne Cash. Dedicated to a lying, cheating douche bro with the big important job, it's a perfect mix of contemporary country and rugged 70s nostalgia, featuring sublime harmonies that just beautifully melt into one another and lyrics that give Taylor's own 'Karma' a serious run for their money ('She never quits/Or forgets/I don't mess with karma/But I sure love that bitch').
Lola Kirke is more than just a little curious about country music. Where Lady for Sale saw her give it a bright, kitschy 80s glow, this EP sees her lean all the way in, with a lot of its blues and roots influence able to be attributed to producer and lifelong friend, Elle King.
It’s masterfully constructed and cleverly written, more so than Lady for Sale at times. It should earn Kirke some kind of acclaim as Musgraves or Ballerini or Morris, just like Lady for Sale should’ve had the singer/actress occupying the same space as Rina and Carly Rae: Cult pop girlies who deliver on the niche camp in spades.
This imbalance hasn’t gone unnoticed by Kirke noting the ‘mediocre’ 6.4 review Lady for Sale received from Pitchfork (which, coming from those guys, is laughable) in a recent interview with the official Grammys website, along with her dissatisfaction with Hollywood and the lack of decent roles (While I’m at it, Mozart in the Jungle deserved so much better, fuck Amazon for cancelling it so they could fund their stupid Lord of the Rings spinoff series).
Nonetheless, Country Curious proves that heartbreak can be rather empowering and even funny sometimes. Kirke manages to pull off the impossible, balancing humour and heart in a country song without sounding too cartoonish or cynical. She just sounds like she’s having a blast, at this point making way better country bops than the bros...
Janelle Monáe is (still) feeling wet and wild in the new video for the appropriately titled ‘Water Slide.’
Picking up where the party left off from previous single, ‘Lipstick Lover,’ the singer continues her Age of Pleasure with sunshine, simmering reggae and a variety of beautiful bodies on display bumping and grinding around her. Monáe’s clips these days are basically just the 💦 emoji in human form…
Dive in, ‘cos the water’s just fine… (◡‿◡✿)
Janelle Monáe’s The Age of Pleasure is out now. Read the review for 2018’s Dirty Computer here.
Warpaint celebrate 20 years of beautiful band bliss with the dreamy new track, ‘Common Blue.’
It’s a smoky, bass-driven cut of sweetness, filled with the foursome’s typically lush harmonies. The band liken the heady embrace of freedom to butterflies riding the wind, reminding us that we’ve only got one life to live and to live it fully, exactly as they’ve done throughout the years, judging by the behind-the-scenes footage.
Says the band (via Stereogum):
'It makes us smile to release them in collaboration with friends and family at Rough Trade,” the band writes. “It feels like a perfect return to where it all began! With these new songs we tie a bow around this time in our lives, and all the experiences and songs we’ve shared over the years. It’s been an incredible journey and taken us all over the world sharing good times with beautiful people. Our hearts are full!'
Adds vocalist/guitarist Theresa Wayman about the track:
'It started with the chord progression on guitar [...] Jen and I jammed it in her living room in Echo Park and it became a song. We sent it around the houses (Stella and Emily’s houses) and all its elements were brought to life. It’s intended to inspire freedom! Common blue. Rising up again and again, climb a ladder to the sky, catch the view like a butterfly! Everything is possible… it ain’t over till it’s over!'
Congratulations to Warpaint, and here’s to another 20 blissful years (✿◠‿◠)
Read the review for Warpaint’s latest album, Radiate Like This, here.
