With praise still reverberating from December’s unveiling of “Governed By Contagions,” At The Drive In has issued another clarion call from its first album in 17 years: “Incurably Innocent” is the second track to be released in advance of that record, titled in • ter a • li • a, now available for pre-order and confirmed for release May 5 on Rise Records.

The post At The Drive In Returns With New LP ‘in • ter a • li • a’ appeared first on Glide Magazine.

Simon Kinberg Directing Next ‘X-Men’?

The next entry into the wildly uneven X-Men franchise may have found its director in long time series producer/writer Simon Kinberg. This would be the directorial debut for Kinberg, who as of yet has not been confirmed. While no details have yet been released, the film is expected to follow the events of last year’s Apocalypse and focus on the Phoenix saga, which was already the focus of another X-Men film with X-Men The Last Stand, which was effectively erased from continuity by the time travel mechanics of Days of Future Past. Convoluted timelines aside, X-Men has fallen wildly off course after the promising reboot potential and they desperately need a hit for their main series. Though the solo spinoff movies of Deadpool and Logan have received massive critical acclaim, with the former even making an black horse push for a Best Picture nod, the uneven success of the core series has been problematic for many fans, and many point to Kinberg as the culprit. That’s a reductive claim, to be sure, but he’d still have his work cut out for him should he accept the job. At any rate, it’s probably time for another reboot for the series, which might find its best opportunity for doing so in Logan, which will be released next weekend.

(THR)

‘Inhumans’ Makes Bold First Cast

ABC’s next Marvel comics series, Inhumans, has made its first official casting choice, and it’s a doozy. Iwan Rheon, best known as the villainous Ramsey Bolton on Game of Thrones, has been tapped to portray Maximus, brother to the Inhuman king, in the new series, which premieres this fall on ABC. Originally slated for a cinematic release, the concept of Inhumans has been explored on ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. over the last few seasons, though so far no mention has been made of the royal family. Like Agents, Inhumans will share the same universe as the Avengers, and will play a part in the larger story. Rheon is an inspired choice to play Maximus, though only time will tell if he’s able to step from out of the shadow of Ramsey Bolton, a character so reviled that he made Joffrey seem decent. Still, his casting suggests big things for the new series and makes it easily one of the most expected new shows for next season.

(Deadline)

‘Native Son’ Adaptation Lands Director

Richard Wright’s classic novel, Native Son, has been slated for adaptation. Artist and photographer Rashid Johnson has been tapped to direct the project as his feature debut, with Pulitzer prize winning writer Suzan-Lori Parks penning the script. Published in 1940, Wright’s novel of the African-American experience remains relevant to this day, even almost 80 years after its publication. It follows the life of Bigger Thomas who grows up in poverty in Chicago’s south side. Somewhat autobiographical, Wright’s novel influenced generations of writers with its uncompromising voice and powerful message. Johnson, well known in the world of art, brings a unique vision to the tale. No word yet on casting or release.

(THR)

Martin Scorsese Inks Deal with Netflix

In a stunning coup against the traditional studio system—the latest in a series of stunning coups—Netflix has acquired the rights for Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, The film reunites Scorsese with Robert De Niro in what will be their ninth collaboration. The Irishman follows the life of mob hitman Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran and is based on the book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt. Steven Zallian (Schindler’s List) is writing the script. Production is set to begin later this year.

(Variety)

The post Film Bits: ‘X-Men’ May Have Found New Director; ‘Inhumans’ Casts ‘Game of Thrones’ Alum appeared first on Glide Magazine.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Even as his sound has grown bigger and grander over time, Tim Showalter’s songwriting has always radiated with a kind of dark intensity. As Strand of Oaks, he has been consistently making compelling music for years, but it wasn’t until his last record, 2014’s Heal, that he truly emerged as a force of rock and roll. Now, with his new release Hard Love, Showalter has more fully become the rock star he was always meant to be. Though his early days of being the quiet, acoustic singer-songwriter are still at the root of who he is as an artist now, he has evolved into a more fully realized version of himself. Hard Love finds Showalter still reeling from difficult experiences from his past while bringing his sound into the future.

Showalter writes candidly about taking mind-altering substances and seeing the world in a new way. “On the Hill” is a woozy, cloudy trip with heavy guitar riffs that linger alongside echoing, haunting vocals. “Taking Acid and Talking to My Brother” has that same psychedelic tunnel vision sound, but is far calmer and dreamier. It stems from the out of body experience Showalter had at the bedside of his brother, who nearly died a few years ago. It sounds like some floating after-life time warp and is a standout track on Hard Love.

Where Heal was a step closer to big arena rock, Hard Love finds Strand of Oaks stepping directly into the spotlight of it. Showalter and his band create undeniably catchy rock gems that feel tailor made for huge crowds. A smaller venue wouldn’t be able to contain the explosive guitar on “Radio Kids” or the gorgeous, moody drama of title track “Hard Love”. “Quit It” finds Showalter right on the edge of rock bottom, and the way the instrumentals build to boil mirrors the emotions he must have been feeling as he went through it. He has managed to take some of his darkest times and turn them into tightly constructed rock moments primed for sharing with a stadium-sized audience.

The post Strand of Oaks Create Undeniably Catchy Rock Gems On ‘Hard Love’ (ALBUM REVIEW) appeared first on Glide Magazine.

Plenty of people go to see bands when they come through their town, but most people don’t think about everything that it takes to get those bands to their favorite club. Being on tour for a musician is both enlightening and daunting, as physically and mentally draining as it is stimulating. And no matter what, there are always stories to tell. In Tales From The Golden Road we let musicians tell their own stories of life on the road to get a behind-the-scenes, up-close look at what really goes down between each show. 

Brooklyn outfit 79.5 have plenty to be excited about these days. Composed of “honeyed vocalists, street flautists, and psych guitarists”, the group are gearing up to release their new album Predictions on Big Crown Records. As you can hear from their single “Boy Don’t Be Afraid” (streaming below), their sound is catchy and funky, filled with group exuberant group harmonies and funky disco grooves. Their music is aimed at accomplishing two things: making you feel good and making you dance. It’s no surprise that they caught the attention of soul-psych group Chicano Batman, who have enlisted them to open their upcoming tour. The group are also collaborators and friends of Chicano Batman. This is the first tour for 79.5 and it kicks off today at the Crocodile in Seattle, WA. We are excited to share dispatches from the road from this talented group as they traverse the country hitting venues and festivals alike. 

79.5 singers ready to fly, rockin’ our Big Crown Records tees. Made friends with the crew, some are planning to attend our show at Bowery Ballroom on 3/31.

We first met Chicano Batman through our producer Leon Michels, who also co-owns our label and produced Chicano Batman’s new record, Freedom Is Free. We played Bowery Ballroom with them this summer, and before we even met, they had asked the three of us to join them on a couple songs for their set. We happily agreed and a beautiful musical relationship was formed. The show was great, and we all knew this could continue further.

Getting the Rhodes tuned at TimeWarp Music in Venice. Thanks Shane, for making it sound fresh!

In November 2016, we joined CB on 3 songs for a live session with their label ATO and the Wild Honey Pie Sessions, and a little buzz began about 79.5 joining them on their first US headlining tour. A few days later, we were asked to join. A wonderful fit for the two bands. The music from both bands truly compliments one another — and we are honored to be playing with and opening for such talented musicians. With Chicano Batman’s message of truth, freedom of expression & hope for humanity and 79.5′s message of love, loyalty & romance– it’s a beautiful joining of bands on the road.

Bright & early! Nya, Kate and Bardo ready to roll– L.A. to Seattle.

We are so excited to play all of these historic venues– and right now on the West Coast– certainly The Fillmore in SF and The Roxy in LA. We’re starting the tour at The Crocodile in Seattle tomorrow, well, damn stoked about that one too.

And of course when we return to our hometown of NYC and play Bowery Ballroom on March 31.

Shopping for records for Carlos’s birthday at Cosmic Vinyl in Echo Park. The owners were super sweet & we had a blast browsing through their 45s.

79.5 kick off their tour with Chicano Batman tonight at The Crocodile in Seattle, WA. Check out a full list of tour dates below and stay tuned for more dispatches from the road!

79.5 Tour Dates
Feb 23 – Seattle, WA – The Crocodile
Feb 24 – Portland, OR – Star Theater
Feb 25 – Eugene, OR – HiFi Music Hall
Feb 26 – Arcata, CA – Arcata Theatre Lounge
Mar 01 – Sacramento, CA – Harlow’s
Mar 02 – San Jose, CA – The Ritz
Mar 03 – San Francisco, CA – The Filmore
Mar 04 – Los Angeles, CA – The Roxy
Mar 21 – Atlanta, GA – The EARL
Mar 22 – Asheville, NC – The Mothlight
Mar 23 – Chapel Hill, NC – Local 506
Mar 24 – Charlottesville, VA – The Southern
Mar 25 – Washington, DC – Rock & Roll Hotel
Mar 27 – Burlington, VT – Higher Ground
Mar 28 – Boston, MA — The Sinclair
Mar 31 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
Apr 01 – Philadelphia, PA – The Foundry @ The Fillmore
Apr 02 – Pittsburgh, PA – James Street Ballroom
Apr 04 – Toronto, ON – The Velvet Underground
Apr 05 – Detroit, MI – El Club
Apr 06 – Grand Rapids, MI – The Stache @ The Intersection
Apr 07 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall

All dates w. Chicano Batman and Sad Girl

The post Tales From The Golden Road: 79.5 Get Ready Embark On First Tour With Chicano Batman appeared first on Glide Magazine.

Bendigo Fletcher are only just now establishing a following in their hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, but spend some time listening to their heady blend of psych-folk and Americana and you’ll quickly realize these young fellows are on to something special. This is saying something considering they have only been a band since April of 2016. The quintet counts the likes of The Byrds and John Prine as influences, and their sound also brings to mind more modern acts like the Felice Brothers and Dr. Dog.

With an EP on the way, the group has a catchy new single called “Sleeping Pad”, which we are excited to premiere on Glide today. ”Sleeping Pad” came to singer/guitarist Ryan Anderson during a walk through the Kentucky woods. The song is one of the most Americana-leaning tracks on the upcoming EP, if only for the lush fiddle lines that punctuate the vocals. Ultimately, this is a folk inspired homage to the historic wilds of Kentucky that never fail to pick him up when he’s down.

Offering his own thoughts on the song, Ryan Anderson has this to say:

“‘Sleeping Pad’ is the first song we played as a full band, so it made sense as our first release. We’re also stern advocates of sufficient rest above all else. The simplicity of the song lets us sort of check out of our heads and into ‘the zone’ during a long basement practice or a tough week otherwise, and that pays homage to the song’s subject matter of escaping the occasional funk with a little self love and reflection. We did our best to capture the restorative energy of the song thanks much in part to Huntington’s Bud Carroll, who demanded that we give only what we had during a starry-eyed October weekend at his home studio.”

LISTEN:

For more info on Bendigo Fletcher check out their website and Facebook. 

The post SONG PREMIERE: Kentucky Psych-Folk Band Bendigo Fletcher Rest Easy With “Sleeping Pad” appeared first on Glide Magazine.

Santa Barbara based psychedelic funk band, Killer Kaya, releases “Understood” (below) one of the tracks from their upcoming album said to be coming out later this year. While “Understood” holds true to the funk and soul elements found on their last EP “Cigarette Echolocation”, the addition of the saxophone indicates experimentation with a new sound that combines their inclination of late sixties psychedelia with a uniquely modern twist.

The horns and vocals on “Understood” are intimately connected and feed off each other creating a sound that is a time capsule back to bands like Janis Joplin and Big Brother and The Holding Company. A song that lyrically reflects a need to feel accepted, Apoorva Chiplunkar’s firecracker vocals burst in flames on top of driving guitar rhythms and a simple percussion base that provides a foundation on which the track charges forward. Self-recorded and produced by guitarist Rengert, Understood was mixed and mastered at Playback Studios in Santa Barbara, CA.

Killer Kaya, named after their rather large housecat, is a love child of hippies and scientists all living under one roof. The band consists of Apoorva Chiplunkar on vocals, Zach Rengert on guitar, Eric Engel on drums, Alex Pavellas on bass, Cory Lund on trumpet and keys, and Josh Sheltzer on saxophone.

Killer Kaya has played shows throughout Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and the Central Coast area. Having played shows with notable musicians like funk legend Shuggie Otis and Chad Smith of The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Killer Kaya is poised to become Santa Barbara’s very own psychedelic outfit. Killer Kaya will be making their festival debut at Starry Nites Festival- happening March 18th and 19th at the Live Oak Campground in the mountains of Santa Barbara and will be playing alongside acts like The Kills, Cat Power, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Teenage Fanclub, and She Wants Revenge.

Killer Kaya will shortly be announcing Spring dates in Santa Barbara with San Francisco based rockers Snow Angel and will be playing a Northern California tour at the end of the summer.

Links:

From EP Cigarette Echolocation

Soul on Fire:

Sandy Potato Chip: 

Cloud Nine:

Link to Full EP:

Facebook:

Instagram:

Band Camp:

The post SONG PREMIERE: Killer Kaya Brings Mystical Funk Alive on “Understood” appeared first on Glide Magazine.

Kevin Russell never slows down. Since calling it quits with his beloved band The Gourds in 2013, the Austin musician has been devoting nearly every waking hour to his band Shinyribs. Russell formed the group as a side project of The Gourds when the band was still going strong. It soon became clear that Shinyribs would need to be a full time job in order for it to satisfy the demand of an increasingly devoted fanbase in Austin and beyond. Whereas The Gourds dwelled in their own realm of cow punk and Southern roots rock, Shinyribs steered closer to swamp pop, New Orleans R&B, and Gulf Coast soul. Over the course of three albums, Russell has continued to expand the size of his band and in turn the sound.

On the fourth Shinyribs album, I Got Your Medicine, the harmonies and brass are bigger than ever. It also finds Russell tapping into a new charisma as a bandleader and as a songwriter as he mines the New Orleans R&B and swamp pop sounds that are so near and dear to his heart.  To nail this sound, Russell enlisted the producing prowess of Southern stalwart Jimbo Mathus. The resulting album is only further proof that Shinyribs is one of the best bands around at a time when we could all use a little musical release. In between leading his massive band and waxing poetic on any given topic, Russell also finds time to record covers of unexpected tunes on his ukulele while sitting behind the wheel of his car. Recently, I had the chance to speak with this tried and true performer about the new album, his love of swamp pop, making songs about tacos, and much more. 

The title of the album is I Got Your Medicine. It’s safe to say we all need a little medicine right now in some form of another. What was the inspiration for the title?

It was a little bit inspired by a personal experience of a friend of mine and his wife, and some hard times they went through. They were both on lots of heavy medicine, like anti-psychotic stuff. I have this feeling that most people are on some kind of drug, mostly prescription drugs these days – I really feel like that’s true. There’re plenty of people doing illegal drugs but kind of a disturbing thought to me is how many people are on legal drugs. Some of it is totally legitimate needed understandable stuff, but some of the behavioral designer drugs, I don’t know much about those but I’m always surprised when a friend of mine is on them. When I learned how many friends of mine were on these medicines, I was a little shocked by it. I kind of went through a phase where it seemed like most people I knew were on them.

My friend and his wife went through some hard times and I helped them financially and spiritually, and really any way I could. Their car broke down and they lived out in the country, and he was always having to get her medicine. A major part of their life was getting tattooed and getting medicine. I remember him calling her from the Walgreen’s or whatever, having a little argument on the phone, and he was like, “I got your medicine” [laughs]. A little bit of commentary on that was kind of the inspiration for the song, but a bigger picture is that it’s a really common thing these days. It’s almost a nice thing to say now, like a husband might say to his wife, “It’ll be alright, I got your medicine, don’t worry.”

Your perspective on that is kind of interesting because on the one hand the context of the story is fairly dark and the commentary on society is troubling, but then it’s like you’ve spun it into this happy thing about relief.

I see what’s going on in our society pretty darkly like most people do, but then you take each person individually and most are sweet and they’re not trying to be hateful or earn membership in whatever negative club they’ve joined. Your average Trump voters, I know lots of them, are nice people one on one. Then you put them all together [laughs] and it gets dark. It’s definitely a weird phenomenon.

In that same song you say a line about a mall dying inside you and I read that you love dying and abandoned malls. What’s the story behind that?

There’s something peaceful and interesting about malls that are dying. You go to them and most of the stores are gone – I just love those kind of malls [laughs]. So the idea of the mall dying inside of you is just trying to write those emotional things inside of us and putting them into words that make sense. There are a lot of people who buy into a materialistic life in America buying a bunch of crap. I’m right there with everybody, but I’ve always thought I shouldn’t be that way…but I still end up with a bunch of crap anyway. It’s just that feeling of like, where does all this crap get you? It gets you nowhere. To some degree, all of our lives are just like one big dying mall.

That sounds so tragic.

I never bought into that dream, but still here I am in the dying mall and I kind of like it.

Going off of the album title and Shinyribs live shows is this idea of relief and escaping for a good time. Do you feel pressure as an artist to offer some kind of statement or is it a statement in and of itself to take a different road and offer people a chance to take their minds off of things?

For a while it seems like the entertainment world of the last twenty years has been focused on the confessionalism of a lot of the songwriters, especially in pop music. You get this highly sophomoric confessional stuff. I don’t want to hear about fucking personal life problems, I’ve got enough of my own! To me I’m writing blues songs, if you get down to them it’s not all roses. But I’m writing them and I’m singing them not to escape it but to forget about it for a little while. Blues can be sorrowful and roll in self-pity, or you can have a good time and dance. You can still be singing about your troubles but you can do it and have a good time while you’re doing it…that’s kind of what I’m going for I think.

That seems to be similar to a lot of your inspirations, like old school New Orleans R&B, swamp pop, and stuff like that. For this album were there certain records or artists that inspired the songs and the vibe you’re talking about?

All of the New Orleans R&B stuff like Dave Bartholomew, those bands he had, Allen Toussaint. Then the swamp pop guys who are lesser known; Cookie and the Cupcakes, Sunny & the Sunliners. Even Doug Sahm, a lot of his early stuff was swamp pop.

“Wasted Days and Wasted Nights” comes to mind.

That’s a swamp pop song! He kind of brought it into the Tex Mex thing and gave it a San Antonio flare, which was great. The swamp pop guys to me were like, they didn’t have the chops of the New Orleans guys but they were trying to play that R&B stuff. At the same time over in Jamaica those guys were trying to play the New Orleans R&B stuff. I think the heart of this record is inspired by that city and that history. Really across the Gulf Coast, that’s kind of why I picked Sugar Hill Studios in Houston to record because a lot of that stuff went down there.

The band’s sound has developed into something bigger and brassier with each album. What do you think drives you to keep pushing for a bigger sound?

It comes down to my personnel, the evolution of the people that come into my life musically, I’m just kinda what drives it. A few years ago I played a wedding and the groom told me to hire a horn section because he wanted to hear me with horns, and he gave me a list of covers he wanted me to do. So I did and was like, wow that’s cool, and I started doing some other gigs with them. Once that was happening, I was missing the harmony singing so I tried to find a way to do that and eventually I came up with the idea of adding two girl back-up singers, which is another classic element to this style of music. We did a Valentine’s show two years ago with them for the first time and it was so great, so it seemed like a no-brainer to go in that direction. I’m just following what happens; I’m open to the world and all people I meet. Fans and musicians alike, I’m reaching out to the world and trying to be supportive of other people as much as I can. It feels good to be that way.

Compared to the Gourds where everyone contributed almost equally in a democratic way, you’ve become a full on bandleader of a larger outfit. What’s it like leading so many people both in the studio and in the road?

I think in the Gourds the challenge was that we all had veto power. It was like a five-way gay sexless marriage and it was hard because we were all equal. I can see why Congress has such a hard time with that many people trying to agree on something. With Shinyribs I was like, I see now I have to be the leader and make the decisions, and that sounded good to meA good leader is also a follower, so I’ve learned a lot. I learned a lot from the Gourds days about how to communicate with people, how to treat people with more respect, even when people act stupid. You can’t necessarily yell at them, you have to understand to help them get through it. I have a great group of people who buy into what I do, enjoy it, and want to be part of it. That’s a key thing. I’m a big sports fan and I love the model of the San Antonio Spurs. I’d say we’re the San Antonio Spurs of swamp pop.

Based on all of your work as a songwriter but especially in Shinyribs, food is a frequent topic. Do you consciously try and work your favorite foods into songs or does it happen naturally?

It happens naturally. I love food. Music I think is my religion but my drug of choice is food. I’m a big food person, probably too much of one. Growing up with my mom’s good cooking and I love to cook myself and eat. I wax poetic about food. It’s one of the great things about life, so naturally it makes its way into my songs.

Is there a particular eatery or dish that you’ve always wanted to write a song about?

I wrote “Donut Taco Palace” just because every time I drove by that would pop in my head, so I was like I had to write this song to get it out of my head. When we rehearse now I go to this other taco place called Macho Taco. I feel guilty, like maybe I should write them a song too. Then I’m like, if I write another taco song, people are gonna be like, c’mon man you already wrote a taco song!

They’ll start booking you for kids parties.

Yeah, my long-awaited concept record. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Taco Band or something.

You have a big band and are based in Austin, Texas. That city has changed dramatically over the last handful of years. Do you have any comment on places like Austin becoming havens for the rich and how that affects musicians?

Affordability is a problem for everyone and it’s going to affect the culture of the city in a lot of ways. I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about it, but ultimately you just have to live with it. If I was a young musician in Austin right now, if I was as poor as I was when I was twenty-something, I wouldn’t be in Austin. I would go where it was cheap. That’s why I came to Austin, because it was cheap and I could work as little as possible and just play music. I don’t know if that’s possible here anymore. But the middle class has always been a huge contributor to rock and roll, you know, kids from the suburbs who have a little bit of money. Rock and roll as we know it today I think sprang from the middle class, so it’s not necessarily a bad thing. So not a lot has changed except that the inner cities have become desirable by everyone now, not just the bohemians. It forces everyone out. I live out in the suburbs now, I just kept moving further out and I didn’t like architecturally what was going on in the middle of Austin. I was really disturbed by the fact that the city had no architectural oversight for the neighborhoods. It’s kind of embarrassing; you can build this giant post-modern angular monstrosity right next to a 1950s ranch house. It makes no damn sense and I didn’t want to live in that. I’m glad I left because if you go down certain streets in Austin now it looks like Frank Lloyd Wright  exploded. It’s a very nouveau riche kind of thing, kind of disappointing, but I don’t lose any sleep over it [laughs].

Ultimately, I just want to live somewhere where people will leave me alone and I can do what I want. That used to be in the city but now I couldn’t do the stuff I do without noise complaints. I like where the city is at, it’s thriving and reinventing itself constantly. A lot of people are coming here with not a lot of money and they’re making it, they just have to bust their ass to do it. That’s the trade-off, I never had to work that hard. I just wanted to live an artist life and I still do. I’ve been successful and the city has treated me well, so I’m grateful for that.

Shinyribs release I Got Your Medicine on February 24th. For more music and info visit shinyribs.org.

The post Kevin Russell (Ex Gourds) Talks New Shinyribs Album, Tacos, Old Austin and more (INTERVIEW) appeared first on Glide Magazine.

On May 19, The Mountain Goats return with Goths. The band has shared the first single  via Spotify and can be heard below. The Mountain Goats have announced a run of tour dates including several opening for Jason Isbell. John Darnielle is currently on a book tour with his new New York Times bestselling novel Universal Harvester. More information including a list of appearances is available here.

John Darnielle writes of the track:

This song began its life on a 1973 Guild while I was at the beach a couple of summers back; I wrote the first verse and the chorus and then I put it away. In the darkness of my desk-drawer it gathered strength and plotted its return to the surface. I revisited it after I’d decided to not have any guitars on the next album, and finished writing it on the piano, which accounts for the mild McCartneyisms of the changes in the bridge, which are things I can’t really do on a guitar. In the lyric, I imagine one of my teenage heroes, Andrew Eldritch, returning to the town where the band worked and played when they were young. His friends give him a hard time about ending up back where he started, but not because they’re mad: it’s good to see an old friend wearing the marks of time on his hands and face like well-loved tattoos. So shall it be in these times: your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions, and Andrew Eldritch, whose music has reached spirits in every corner of the globe, will move back to Leeds. 

Goths was recorded at Blackbird Studios, Nashville; produced by Brandon Eggleston; and mixed by Scott Solter. Woodwinds arranged and played by Matt Douglas. The Mountain Goats are John Darnielle, Peter Hughes, Jon Wurster, and Matt Douglas and are gothic for life.

From bassist Peter Hughes:

The theme this time around is goth, a subject closer to my heart perhaps than that of any Mountain Goats album previous. And while John writes the songs, as he always has, it feels more than ever like he’s speaking for all of us in the band, erstwhile goths (raises hand) or otherwise, for these are songs that approach an identity most often associated with youth from a perspective that is inescapably adult. Anyone old enough to have had the experience of finding oneself at sea in a cultural landscape that’s suddenly indecipherable will empathize with Pat Travers showing up to a Bauhaus show looking to jam, for example.

But underneath the outward humor, there is evident throughout a real tenderness toward, and solidarity with, our former fellow travelers—the friends whose bands never made it out of Fender’s Ballroom, the Gene Loves Jezebels of the world—the ones whose gothic paths were overtaken by the realities of life, or of its opposite. It’s something we talk about a lot, how fortunate and grateful we are to share this work, a career that’s become something more rewarding and fulfilling than I think any of us could have imagined. We all know how easily it could’ve gone the other way, and indeed for a long time did.

The Mountain Goats on tour:
Apr 01 Cary, NC — Bond Brothers Beer Company
Apr 06 Perth, AU — Badlands
Apr 07 Adelaide, AU — Fowler’s
Apr 08 Adelaide, AU — The Ed Castle SOLD OUT
Apr 09 Marrickville, AU — The Factory Theatre
Apr 11 Melbourne, AU — The Toff SOLD OUT
Apr 12 Richmond, AU — Corner Hotel SOLD OUT
Apr 13 Byron Bay, AU — Bluesfest
Apr 14 Byron Bay, AU — Bluesfest
May 22 Atlanta, GA — Terminal West
May 23 Nashville, TN — Cannery Ballroom
May 25 Birmingham, AL — Saturn
May 26 New Orleans, LA — The Republic
May 27 Houston, TX — White Oak Music Hall
May 28 Dallas, TX — Trees
May 31 Los Angeles, CA — Mayan Theater
Jun 01 San Francisco, CA — The Fillmore
Jun 02 San Francisco, CA — The Fillmore
Jun 04 Portland, OR — Crystal Ballroom
Jun 05 Seattle, WA — The Showbox
Jun 23 New York, NY — Beacon Theatre ^
Jun 24 New York, NY — Beacon Theatre ^
Jun 26 New Haven, CT — College Street Music Hall ^
Jun 27 Boston, MA — Blue Hills Bank Pavilion ^
Jun 28 Providence, RI — Columbus Theatre
Jun 30 Columbia, MD — Merriweather Post Pavilion ^
Jul 01 Cincinnati, OH — PNC Pavilion at Riverband Music ^
Jul 02 Huber Heights, OH — Rose Music Center ^
Jul 05 Papillion, NE — Sumtur Amphitheater ^
Jul 06 Des Moines, IA — Wooley’s
Jul 07 Saint Paul, MN — The Palace Theatre ^
Jul 08 Madison, WI — Majestic Theatre
Jul 09 Bloomington, IL — Castle Theatre
Jul 11 Sioux Falls, SD — The Washington Pavilion ^
Jul 12 Saint Louis, MO — Peabody Opera House ^
Jul 13 Oklahoma City, OK — ACM@UCO Performance Lab
Jul 14 Austin, TX — ACL Live at the Moody Theater ^

^ – w/ Jason Isbell

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With that gum you like coming back in style, David Lynch is back on everyone’s minds. The upcoming relaunch of Twin Peaks has everyone talking about Lynch and his uncompromising “weirdness.” Weird is the oft-used shorthand for the Lynchian oeuvre, a kind of lazy workaround that we can all readily agree upon without having to worry so much about putting too much thought into whatever it is that Lynch is ultimately trying to accomplish.

Which isn’t to say that “weird” isn’t an operative word. As a director, Lynch thrives in weirdness. There isn’t really any disputing this as anything other than fact. What everyone misses in their assessment, however, is the hows and whys of Lynch’s weirdness, choosing instead to use “weird” as the be all end all of the conversation.

Getting behind the machinations of Lynch’s singular vision requires a bit of thought regarding what, exactly, it is that he’s doing. Lynch has built his entire voice on a bizarre juxtaposition of the real and unreal, where the strange exists in concert with the mundane along a winding path of absurdity that people tend to misunderstand as lacking logic. The logic is there in droves. It makes perfect sense when you accept that what Lynch is offering is a peek into logic of dreams. Specifically, of nightmares.

Lynch movies have always been nightmarish, but whereas most of the time when that word is used it denotes a feeling of terror and dread, here it should be taken literally. In the world of dreams, the people and places of your subconscious flow without any rhyme or reason—at least, not one that’s readily discernible. The hallway of your childhood home can lead to the door to your current office, where you find that your first girlfriend is your boss, and you don’t question it because, in the context if your psyche, it makes a kind of sense. It might seem “weird” when you wake up and tell it to someone, but there’s a clearly defined logic at play.

Lynch has made an impeccable use of this style of filmmaking through his entire career; though most (perhaps rightly) associate this with his magnum opus, Twin Peaks, it’s actually another of his works, Lost Highway, where this style is utilized to its most full and, well, fucking weird.

Lost Highway celebrates its 20^th anniversary this month, just ahead of the premiere of the Twin Peaks reboot, which debuts May 21 on Showtime. Rewatching now, Lost Highway almost feels like a necessary companion piece to Twin Peaks, if not outright sequel. There’s been some debate over the years as to whether or not the two exist in the same universe. I would argue the answer is yes, with a great big ol’ asterisk.

The universe in question is not a shared universe as we’ve come to know and understand it. I don’t think we can ever expect to see Robert Blake’s Mystery Man sharing deep thoughts with Bob or The Man From Another Place. Rather, the universe in which both stories exist is the universe of Lynch’s nightmares, sharing a thematic link that comprises a sort of trilogy (ending with Mulholland Drive). All three explore ideas about doppelgangers and violence in a noir style cemented in the absurd.

As bizarre as it is on first watch, Lost Highway is an easy nut to crack . It’s simply exploration of jealousy, with a bit of psychosis thrown in for good measure. Essentially, Fred Madison (Bill Pullman) murders his wife Renee (Patricia Arquette) while in the midst of a jealousy fueled psychotic break and then, unable to deal with what he’s done, invents the persona of Pete Dayton (Balthazar Getty) in an attempt to distance himself from his atrocity.

What makes this seem like such a difficult and absurd tale is Lynch’s use of nightmares as a structure. Lost Highway is, essentially, a dreamscape—not a dream, per se, but it unfolds as a nightmare would. Settings and characters change abruptly—good luck trying to figure out the layout of Pullman’s house—as the real and unreal intertwine in twisted congress.

Accepting this, it’s easier to begin taking the events of Lost Highway at face value. Why does Fred inexplicably morph into the mild-mannered repairman Pete? It doesn’t really matter. Wondering that misses the point. So what, exactly, is the point?

It’s probably important to know that Lynch began his artistic career as a painter. His tenure as an artist has run along two different paths which influence each other in subtle and not so subtle ways. As a painter, Lynch focuses his efforts on creating surreal images that challenge viewers to take trips into the dark recesses of their psyche, using oddly juxtaposed images to spark feeling in his audience. His work is both evocative and provocative; erotic and terrifying. Sometimes, all these things at once.

It’s almost uncomfortable to view his artistic works in a single place—surreal portraits of Americana existing side by side with noirish photography and childish scribblings—but, as an artist, Lynch isn’t interested in your comfort. To look at his works is to gain insight into his overall perspective, which is heavily focused on the dark and hidden corners of modern living. (You can see some of his works here; a few are NSFW.)

With this in mind, we can begin to crack the shell of Lost Highway—or, really, his entire cinematic catalog—even further. The films of David Lynch aren’t films as we traditionally think of them, they’re works of living art, designed and constructed by their creator to evoke, provoke, and terrify not as narrative but as experiences. This is the angle from which criticism of Lost Highway should be approached.

This also accounts for the poor reception the film received upon its release. In 1997, Lynch was still riding high on the Twin Peaks wave, and people were starting to expect what they ought not to have expected from him as a director (same for those not immediately on board with Fire Walk with Me). People enthralled by Twin Peaks were so due to the perceived weirdness of the series without bothering to consider that the weirdness was the point, in and of itself, and didn’t require any further explanation.

Besides, explanation tends to ruin Lynch’s storytelling. Ratings for Twin Peaks plummeted after the Big Reveal in the middle of season two, and the rest of the series’ truncated run found them scrambling to keep the weirdness factor alive to keep audiences interested. It didn’t work, not immediately anyway. Though eventually the mythology of the Black Lodge and the lookalikes would propel Twin Peaks to the point of resurrection, without the central mystery as a compelling agent, people were, by and large, disinterested.

It wasn’t really a shock when Fire Walk with Me bombed at the box office; people expected closure and got a prequel that pushed the absolute limits of the surreal, like a Dali painting depicting murder in the heart of Little Town, USA. Lost Highway represented a doubling down of this aesthetic from Lynch, which removes the trappings of soap operas from the themes and forces audiences to journey along a dark, inner road of memory and psychosis.

Removing the soap operatic façade of Twin Peaks (people forget, much of that series played on common tropes and clichés of the form) allowed Lynch to play around in a similar universe unencumbered by expectation or standards. It became a Black Lodge story sans context, furthering the notion that the Black Lodge exists as a dark part of all of us, rather than a mysterious purgatory just outside our normal comprehension and perception. The Black Lodge is not a physical place but a psychological one; we can only comprehend it via the language of nightmares.

Whether or not Twin Peaks shares a universe with Lost Highway is ultimately irrelevant. What it shares is a thematic thread that finds Lynch exploring the ideas of inner darkness and turmoil, and the thread is wound so tightly that both works, at the very least, share the same air. Though Twin Peaks is the more culturally important work, Lost Highway is more grand.

It’s also the work that showcases Lynch’s most substantial growth as a filmmaker. Though his techniques (and even themes) are arguably explored best in Mulholland Drive, Lost Highway finds Lynch coming into his own as a surrealistic filmmaker with a nightmarish vision for humanity.

Fred is none of us, but he could be any of us. Anyone predisposed to the kind of jealous intensity of psychosis on Lost Highway’s main character could, given the right set of circumstances, succumb to the darkest of human impulses, even if they’re otherwise “good people.” For Fred, life is a nightmare from which he can’t awaken. He stumbles through existence alternating through jealousy over his inability to come to terms with his wife’s sexual history, his rage over her infidelity, and his latent psychosis that becomes exacerbated by his jealous rage.

What we’re witnessing, then, though it’s never stated, is Fred’s self-imprisonment within the Black Lodge—a world of nightmares, hidden truths, and duplicates. If Bob is a demon which murders for pleasure, the Mystery Man is a demon with a higher purpose. His is a one of detached truth (represented by the camcorder he carries in the last act) that sees things for how they truly are, untainted by the spoils of perception—something Fred, by his own admission, avoids at all costs.

He’s the voice that whispers our misdeeds that we try to ignore, the truth that won’t go unsaid. When he casually informs Fred, “It’s not my custom to go where I am not wanted,” Lynch is telling us that Fred invited this all upon himself. Fred is in a nightmare of his design. The closest he gets to waking up is when Alice, the duplicate of his wife Renee, tells Pete, Fred’s subconscious perception of himself, “You’ll never have me.”

Literally, Fred can never have Renee because he murdered her. Figuratively, Fred never had her because he couldn’t ever overcome the jealousy of her sexual history. Admittedly, Lynch hides all of this in a façade of weirdness; the crux of Lost Highway is easy enough to grasp, but it’s not enough for Lynch merely to opine “jealousy can destroy you.” As an artist, he wants you to experience it for yourself.

The narrative disorientation you feel watching it is not dissimilar from Fred’s disorientation as he spirals down the path to psychosis and murder. Jealousy obscures our thoughts and our perceptions, and no amount of truth can set us free. Lost Highway’s success as a work of art hinges on our inability to free ourselves from the confines of traditional narrative structure. The journey from A to B in this case is a lot shorter than it may first appear, but it’s the dizzying path Lynch leads us down that, ultimately, is the point.

This is probably important to keep in mind as we gear up for the new run of Twin Peaks on Showtime. The thematic thread that holds Twin Peaks, Lost Highway, and later Mulholland Drive so closely together is surely still wound tightly through whatever it is that Lynch is about to do to us. It’s been a good while since we’ve had a proper Lynch experience as audiences, so it would do us well to remember what exactly we mean when we talk about Lynch. Answers are easy to come by, obscured though they might be, and they’re never as interesting as the process of finding them. That’s the real lesson of Lost Highway, which stands, two decades later, as the ultimate Lynchian monument to surrealistic storytelling.

Lost Highway had one of the greatest soundtracks of all time. Give it another listen below.

The post The Enduring Importance of ‘Lost Highway’: The Lynchian Nightmare Unrestrained appeared first on Glide Magazine.

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Some 30 years ago, The Feelies gave new meaning and incentive to the alt-rock underground. Based out of the otherwise unassuming town of Hoboken New Jersey, they fused a psychedelic sensibility to the acoustic strum purveyed by REM, fashioning an allusive yet enticing sound that was undoubtedly hypnotic in its dryly distinct take on modern rock sensibilities.

Forty years on, The Feelies are back with In Between, their first album in six years. It is, in a sense, a return to their original MO, a sound that is clearly reminiscent of the template they established early on with all its druggy distinction. The references to past Feelies efforts like The Good Earth and Only Life ensure a clear trajectory from past to present, a continuum that remains unbroken despite the decades that have passed since their distinctive debut, 1980’s Crazy Rhythms. Consequently, In Between marks a welcome return, especially in light of the fact that their recent releases have been centered around re-releases of their earlier endeavors, The title track, “Turn Back Time,” “Been Replaced” and “When To Go” offer the atmospheric ambiance that was always so vital to their shifting sound, while “Flag Days” and “Pass the Time” seem to draw inspiration from the Velvet Underground’s seminal sound, a clear precedent for the Feelies’ finesse. In Between indeed; a bridge between past and present, the new album pays homage to the experimental nature of American indie rock of the ‘80s, bowing to the past and showing the way towards the future.

One can only help that this classic band will continue to imprint their mark on modern rock and keep its balance on the cutting edge, an additive rock needs more than ever these days. A great band once, they’re as impressive as ever now. In Between is all the proof needed.

The post The Feelies Keep True Indie Alive On ‘In Between’ (ALBUM REVIEW) appeared first on Glide Magazine.

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Since the release of their eponymous debut in 2005, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah have struggled to create something quite as monumental. In fact, after releasing three other LPs over the past decade and failing to receive much critical acclaim, founder Alec Ounsworth has decided to make the band a solo project and The Tourist is the first release with himself as the only official member. Surprisingly, The Tourist has a fuller sound than many of their previous releases. That could be because after recording the album at Dr. Dog’s Philadelphia studio with a drummer and bassist, Ounsworth spent a few months with the engineer Nick Krill adding backup vocals, keyboards, guitars and more percussion.

From the start it is evident to fans of the band that The Tourist is the biggest return to form album since their self-titled debut. The opening track “The Pilot” starts the album off with a strong, confident feel with Ounsworth’s peculiar falsetto over acoustic guitars and a mostly subdued drumbeat. Not surprisingly, the most standout songs on the album, “Down (Is Where I Want to Be)” and “Fireproof” have been released as singles. “Fireproof” is a dark synth and electric guitar laden track that hears Ounsworth singing confidently with enough of an experimental feel to bring to mind earlier material. “Down (Is Where I Want to Be)” is another synth filled track with some dark but danceable beats and is easily one of the most catchy on the album. Some of the other tracks like “The Vanity of Trying” and “Visiting Hours” are still good songs but sound more like experimental British indie pop artists Fanfarlo and post-brit pop than classic CYHSY.

While Clap Your Hands Say Yeah was definitely not the first band to combine experimental rock with indie rock, their debut album was paramount to bringing that sound into mainstream indie rock. It could be that their debut album held their best material, as is the case for many bands, or it could be that as listeners started exploring other bands in the experimental indie genre they found that bands like Animal Collective or Of Montreal and others that cropped up just created more consistent albums. Whatever the reason, Ounsworth’s decision to stick it out as a solo member of the band seems like exactly was what needed to start creating the sound that fans of the band feel in love with in the first place. The Tourist is easily the best overall album that the band has released in over a decade.

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“There is just one thing/I can’t understand, my friend/why some folks think freedom/ is not designed for all men,” sings Rhiannon Giddens in a fiery voice as she covers “Freedom Highway” a song the Staples Singers recorded back in the 1960s. Giddens teamed up with singer-songwriter Bhi Bhiman and the duo recorded their own spirited version of the song for Giddens’ sophomore solo album. Inspired by the freedom marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama  in 1965,  “Freedom Highway” sounds as relevant today as it did during the height of the civil rights movement. Thus making it the perfect title track for this album; a work in which freedom is at the forefront as Giddens explores racial strife from the days of slavery to our current times.

A powerhouse vocalist, fiddler and banjo player,  Giddens has always had a strong sense of purpose in her music. This dates back to her work with the Grammy winning string band, The Carolina Chocolate Drops, a group that brought attention to the overlooked contribution of African-Americans to folk music. On her 2105 debut solo album “It’s My Turn”  she covered the work of female artists including neglected musicians like Elizabeth Cook. That album brought  Giddens great acclaim and secured her status as one of the finest singers working today.

When it came time to record a follow-up, she headed down to Louisiana to record with multi-instrumentalist Dirk Powell. Powell co-produced “Freedom Highway” with Giddens and also co-wrote three of the album’s songs.  Giddens hadn’t done a lot of songwriting prior to this release but wrote or co-wrote nine of the tracks here  The songs which comfortably fit in between covers by Mississippi John Hurt and Richard Farina, teeter between heartbreak and hope as Giddens urges us to confront the past as we struggle in the present.

One of the standout tracks “Julie,”  is built around a conversation between a slave and her mistress and was inspired by the book “The Slaves’ War,” by Andrew Ward. When Giddens who was trained in opera, wails out the final line “Mistres oh Mistress I wish you well/In leaving here, I’m leaving hell,” the listener can’t help but be jolted by the power and conviction in her voice.The song also showcases Giddens’ skill on the banjo.  “At the Purchaser’s Option,” a quiet folk song,  is also written in the voice of a slave.

Giddens assembled a fine group of musicians to work on this album including Hubby Jenkins and Leyla McCalla who she worked with in the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Most of the songs here are based from the old time folk music that she is known for, but this the disc also includes traces of gospel, country and even jazz. “Hey Bebe,” is a saucy creole romp that sounds straight out of New Orleans, while “Baby Boy is a mournful lullaby.

“Better Get It Right the First Time,”  is the disc’ most contemporary sounding tune as Giddens embraces a pop rock sound that would do Beyonce proud to tell the story of a Trevor Martin styled shooting of an innocent black boy. Giddens’ nephew Justin Harrington interjects some rapping into the song to provide it with even more edge.

“Freedom Highway” is an ambitious album that not only is a testament to Giddens’ impressive musical talent but is an important work with a timely message that resonates during these turbulent times. While these songs express great pain, in these words there is also hope and a call to action. And when Giddens sings”Made up my mind/ that I won’t turn around,” on the aforementioned title track we know she means it.

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No one is questioning that King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard are strange. Or that they are an extremely psychedelic, experimental and talented seven-member group. Their past albums alone prove this. The dreamy psychedelic fuzz of Oddments or the heavy-hitting that is supposed to be the “world’s first infinity looping album” are clear examples that the band does not shy from the unusual: and they pull it off with flying colors.

Flying Microtonal Banana is their first experimentation with microtonal tuning. Microtonality is the utilization of intervals smaller than customary semitones and whole-tones. While this tuning system is not seen much in Western music, it is essential to many other pars of the world such as Indonesia, India, and Middle East. Drummer Eric Moore talks about how the band’s dabbling in this area ended up leading to a full blown album, “Earlier this year we started experimenting with a custom microtonal guitar our friend Zak made for Stu. The guitar was modified to play in 24-TET tuning and could only be played with other microtonal instruments. We ended up giving everyone a budget of $200 to buy instruments and turn them microtonal. The record features the modified electric guitars, basses, keyboards and harmonica as well as a Turkish horn called a Zurna.”

There are songs on the album that have a Middle Eastern feel because of this tuning. However, they maintain an air of psychedelia so integral to King Gizzard. “Flying Microtonal Banana,” the last song on the album, really encompasses this. It features this squealing Turkish horn and layers of deep percussive sound. “Sleep Drifter” touches on this exotic sound as well but the lyrics and melody seem to be closest to an older sound of theirs. The familiarity in this pool of unconventionality is much welcomed. “Rattlesnake” is one of the more promising off of the record. It has a subtle use of this microtonality, and sort of works in a modern way. The only issue I find is that it’s terribly repetitive. “Melting” is in a similar vein, but much more playful.

Overall, it really almost works. But the songs all seem to blur together and the words run in streams all over the place. It winds up but leads nowhere. But maybe nowhere is somewhere. Maybe that’s where they wanted to go — some spiraling microtonal world.

The post King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard Keep It Weird…. Again On ‘Flying Microtonal Banana’ (ALBUM REVIEW) appeared first on Glide Magazine.

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It’s rare that a horror film feels important. Mostly horror exists as pure escapism; a fun romp through the fields of terror that allows audiences to escape their lives for 90 minutes at a time. On a level, Get Out certainly does that. The thrills it offers, however, pale in comparison to everything else the film does. It’s a horror film that transcends comparison, offering a remarkable commentary on the state of race relations in America today.

These days, white America doesn’t like to think about how we’re perceived by members of marginalized communities; instead, we tend to prefer keeping our heads buried in the sand and telling ourselves that everything is fine. Anything that takes us out of our uncomfortable façade is met with backlash and cries of “reverse racism”—a sort of rhetorical equivalent of covering your ears and screaming “I can’t hear you!” Maybe it’s white guilt; maybe it’s willful ignorance. I can’t really say. But it doesn’t take much to see that things aren’t as great as we would like to believe.

Writer/director Jordan Peele (Key and Peele, Keanu) drives a stake right through the heart of the notion of a raceless utopia in his directorial debut. Get Out is a film that drives home the fears of the African American community regarding white people in a way that’s understandable to all. Watching it, I couldn’t help thinking about Malcolm X’s speech on white liberals and how they’ll smile and nod in agreement while betraying you in the same moment. That’s not a sentiment many in the white community can understand or, really, are even ready to hear. Get Out’s power is in making that palpable.

Daniel Kaluuya (Sicario) stars as Chris, who’s being taken by his girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams, Girls) to meet the parents (Bradley Whitford, The West Wing and Catherine Keener, Captain Phillips). Chris is understandably nervous, especially when he discovers Rose hasn’t informed her parents that she’s dating a black guy. Once there, he discovers a loving, if awkward, family—the kind who attempt to bond by assuring him that they, “Would’ve voted for Obama a third time.” He soon discovers a hidden darkness beneath the surface. The other African Americans he encounters in the affluent neighborhood seem a little off, almost brainwashed. Can Chris figure out what’s going on before something awful happens to him?

It may be tempting to write Get Out off as just another rip off of The Stepford Wives; it certainly owes a debt to the Ira Levin classic. But the similarities are really only surface level, using a similar enough conceit to explore the fears and concerns of the black America in a smart, and endlessly fun, manner. Peele brings the same sharp wit and dialogue that propelled Key and Peele to the forefront of modern comedy to the world of horror to create an intelligent and thought provoking thriller.

Explored here are the fears of losing identity and self. One of the most repeated refrains from white folk is this idea that African Americans would be accepted if they were just more like us. Without realizing it, this merely perpetuates an “otherness” that’s nearly inescapable from the African American community, creating an environment of tension and aggression that’s not easily unwoven. Throughout the film, Chris experiences all manner of microaggressions in form of seemingly benign comments regarding his athletic build and well-spokenness, which he allows to wash over him in the same way you might dismiss a slap to the face.

As the film continues, we’re taken deeper and deeper into this reality as Peele uses the fears of being classified as an “other” as a jumping off point for deeper issues that stem from the reality that not so long ago black people were bought and sold as cattle. Rose’s parents and family come at him all smiles and handshakes, but an auction scene shows that something sinister is going on.

You’re not meant to feel comfortable watching Get Out, though Peele eases us into the discomfort as best he can. Though primarily it’s a horror film, the terror is punctuated by moments of real comedy. LilRel Howery nearly steals the show as Chris’ friend Rod, a fast talking, wise cracking TSA agent. But even the comedy serves a higher purpose, becoming a musing on how the black community will often use humor to deflect the real fears they have about the intentions and thoughts of their white co-citizens.

The result is a dark work of absolute terror, which boldly explores the hidden realities of modern America that white people would just rather not discuss. Using the lexicon of horror, however, this reality and the fears that propel it are presented in a way that’s easily digestible. They’re exaggerated, sure. It’s a horror movie. No one is actually afraid that white people are turning the African American community into mindless automatons. As a metaphor, however, it’s a great jumping off point.

Whether we like it or not, the reality of race relations is a conversation we have to have. With Get Out, the entire discussion is reframed and perhaps we can finally have it. It might be too much to expect white America to finally remove its head from the sand—it’s pretty comfortable down there when you get to pretend nothing is wrong—but imagine the world we could build if we talked about these things instead of just ignoring them. Get Out might start the conversation, but it’s up to us to keep it going.

Get Out is now playing in theaters everywhere.

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The zombie zeitgeist has come and gone. Infested though we were, we’ve moved on from the horrors of last decade into new territories, and now even old stalwarts like The Walking Dead have become pale imitations. That’s the big shame of The Girl with All the Gifts. It came too late to make an impact and, as a result, will be overlooked by the same crowd who, just a few short years ago, were making real plans for what to do should we become overrun by the undead in reality.

It seems unlikely that in 2017 we’d get a film that so reimagines the stakes of the zombie apocalypse. The subject has been so well mined that the structure has collapsed. But I guess if we’ve learned anything about zombies it’s that you can never trust that a thing is ever really dead. There’s always a new threat around the corner, and just when you least expect it you’ll find yourself face to face with a horde of creatures screaming for your flesh.

The Girl with All the Gifts is a revitalization of the conventions that have plagued the zombie genre for years. Successfully reframing the familiar standards, the film is a rare new angle on the zombie tradition, and while it feels a bit too late to have any sort of impact on the wider culture it’s still a must see for any would be warriors of the apocalypse.

Sometime in the future, the world has been overrun by a fungal plague that turns people into zombies. In a secluded base somewhere in Britain, the army keeps a group of children who are infected by the fungus yet still retain their higher functions as prisoners for scientific study, among them Melanie (Sennia Nanua). Melanie and the children are kept safely behind the steel doors and are moved around only after being safely restrained in modified wheel chairs. Under the tutelage of Ms. Justineau (Gemma Atherton) the children are taught science, math, and Greek mythology, but it’s all a part of scientific studies of Dr. Caldwell (Glenn Close) who is determined to see if the children are people or are controlled by the fungus. When the base is overrun by “hungries” Melanie, Ms. Justineau, and Dr. Caldwell are forced out into the wilderness with a group of soldiers where the young girl learns the nature of her existence and the source of her ceaseless hunger.

Zombie-human hybrids have been hinted at before, but never quite like this. It seems odd to humanize something so inhuman as the undead, and the attempts to do so up until now have been, well, silly. Zombie godfather George Romero did it first (as always) with Bub in Day of the Dead but, if we’re being honest, that attempt doesn’t hold up well by today’s standards. What separates Melanie from the rest of the hybrid pack is that she’s entirely human.

For her and the children like her, the fungus is more symbiotic than infection. Its hold on their human impulses isn’t absolute, making them more an evolution than anything else. Rather than trying to humanize a zombie, what The Girl with All the Gifts does is present the idea in an entirely unique way. Yeah, she will eat you if given half the chance, but that doesn’t necessarily mean she wants to. This allows for a rather poignant discussion on nature and nurture. Can her impulses be overcome? Is she human?

It’s tempting to roll your eyes at some of the more standard zombie tropes, but here they feel like an organic outgrowth of the plot rather than a checking of the box. The typical rules apply, but they’re presented in such a unique way that it feels entirely fresh and new. Moreover, while there are still standard zombie jump scares, the film works tirelessly to instill genuine tension and psychological drama rather than rely on bumps in the night.

Coming too late in the game to have any real effect on the genre is certainly disappointing, but that doesn’t mean this is film to be ignored. Even those weary of zombies will find something to enjoy in this gem, which ranks as a modern classic of the subgenre. The Girl with All the Gifts is an exciting new take on zombies that breathes life into the undead unlike anything that’s come alone in quite some time.

The Girl with All the Gifts is now available on iTunes and on demand platforms.

The post Zombies Live Again in ‘The Girl with All the Gifts’ (FILM REVIEW) appeared first on Glide Magazine.

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In a way, it was inevitable. The marriage between Teri Gender Bender, lead singer for Le Butcherettes and Bosnian Rainbows, and the Melvins has been teetering towards existence for years now. With several tours together under their belt and a King Buzzo appearance on a 7”, it really only seemed like a matter of time. In fact, both Buzz and Teri discussed the possibility with us back in 2015. And now it’s happened. The formidable grunge buzz of the Melvins has united with the singular presence of Teri Gender Bender in the form of Crystal Fairy, whose eponymous debut is yet another knockout punch from the current leading lady of rock and fucking roll.

At the table are Teri, her mentor Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (Mars Volta, At the Drive-in) on bass, King Buzzo himself on guitars, and his Melvins cohort Dale Crover on drums. On the menu is nothing but pure rock fury, forcefully served on a platter of solid gold. There’s enough here to satisfy the oldest Melvins fans and the younger Le Butcherettes-heads, with each element adding to a whole much grander than the sum of its parts.

The same brand of heady distortion Melvins fans have come to adore for three decades are on showcase here. You’re never far from crunchy grooves when King Buzzo is in the house, and Crystal Fairy is fueled by the delicious chunk of Buzzo’s guitar as any Melvins classic. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and you’d be hard pressed to find anything hard enough to break the Melvins formula.

Here, it serves to enhance Teri Gender Bender’s no holds barred vocal styles. Her sweet croon can turn into a vicious bark with little warning, displaying a range that makes her one of the most interesting singers in rock today. Relatively speaking, she might be a newcomer to the scene, but she delivers with the intensity and confidence of someone with decades of experience and miles of road behind them.

While the stars of the show are Buzz and Teri, Dale and Omar form a formidable rhythm section, holding things down with a solid attack that keeps the project glued together. Teri and Omar’s familiarity, along with Buzz and Dale’s, create a cohesion that makes Crystal Fairy sound a feel like a polished follow up more than a debut, and the rhythmic interplay of the bass and drums go a long way to adding depth and dimension to a project that risks crumbling under the weight of its stars.

Rather than succumbing to the normal trappings of a supergroup, however, Crystal Fairy sound like a band unto their own. This is no mere attempt to cash in on the fame of their members, this is a fully actualized project that stands as well on its own as it does as a complement to the catalogues of its members.

That’s to be expected, however. Between the four of them, there’s about a century’s worth of experience at the table here, and they all know what they’re doing. Crystal Fairy a tightly crafted, heavy delight for fans and newcomers alike and an absolute must listen.

The post Crystal Fairy Holds Back Nothing on Audacious Debut (ALBUM REVIEW) appeared first on Glide Magazine.

When Sting shouted out, “I want to hear you New Orleans!” the crowd shouted back in unison. While the city is in the midst of their Mardi Gras season, Sting brought that same kind of jovial fun to his set on Wednesday night at the UNO Lakefront Arena, performing with bass in hand just about the whole night and doing his trademark jump when the song felt especially good.

What makes this tour happily satisfying is Sting’s return to rocking his music. The last time he played New Orleans in 2010, he was predominately respectful, almost worshipful, of his songs, as they were performed with a symphony behind him giving them grace, emotion and spirituality. For his 57^th & 9^th Tour, he has dirtied them up a bit and the crowd loved it. Some of the best songs of the evening were rambunctious renditions of “Desert Rose,” “50,000,” “Next To You” and the blending of “Roxanne” with a sultry mid-song departure into “Ain’t No Sunshine” and then back into the raucousness of one of The Police’s biggest hits. And the reggae swinging of “I Can’t Stop Thinking About You,” “I’m So Happy I Can’t Stop Crying” and “So Lonely” has always been one of the best things we’ve loved about the former Gordon Sumner.

With the tour still brand new, having kicked off just a few weeks ago in Vancouver, there is a lot of energy going on. Sting has brought his son, Joe Sumner, along as not only an opening artist but utilizes his pipes as one of his background singers. The Last Bandoleros, a young band out of San Antonio, Texas, whose debut EP was just released last month, follow Sumner with five songs of their own as well as doing backing harmonies throughout Sting’s main 22 song setlist. In fact, the whole show is a group effort. Sting and his band – Dominic Miller, Rufus Miller and Josh Freese – come out for the last song of the Last Bandoleros set, making for a party onstage during “Where Do You Go?” The act is reciprocated during the first encore of Sting’s set when everyone joins him onstage.

Actually, Sting opens his own show with an acoustic “Heading South On The Great North Road,” a song off his new 57^th & 9^th album, released in November of 2016. He then introduces his son, who performs three songs, then the Lost Bandoleros come on and then it’s Sting, his bass and a whole lot of good music. He performs eight songs from the new album and eight Police songs, with only seven songs repeated from the 2010 performance.

Sumner, who is transitioning from the angry young rocker who spit out songs with his longtime group Fiction Plane into a singer-songwriter with more folk leanings than punk. Having begun his musical journey after discovering Nirvana and writing such songs as “Get Out Of My Face,” “Zero” and “Drink,” which he performed on an acoustic guitar during his mini-set, his new inspirations are coming from areas of deep thinking and family life. His new song, “Jelly Bean,” is a loving ode to his children. During his father’s set he comes back to the front of the stage to sing the David Bowie song “Ashes To Ashes,” a definite crowd pleaser if New Orleans was any indication.

The Last Bandoleros, although together for about three years, are just getting their careers started, and having a prime slot on the Sting tour should open more doors for them. A mix of rock and so-called Tex Mex, their set consisted of “Maria,” “River Man,” “Take Me To It,” “I Don’t Want To Know” and the fun rocker “Where Do You Go?” Singer Jerry Fuentes described “I Don’t Want To Know” as having been inspired by his mother’s living room decorations and it features a bouncy rhythm with Fuentes singing the first verse, guitarist Derek James on the second and bassist Diego Navaira on the last. Drummer Emilio Navaira returns to the main stage during “Desert Rose” and is one of the main reasons the song rocks as hard as it does.

Joe Sumner

One of the highlights of seeing Sting is his backing band. The often overlooked but extremely talented Dominic Miller lets loose and the smile on his face translates to his playing, hypnotically shining on “50,000” and playing a quite lovely intro to “Shape Of My Heart.” Miller’s son Rufus has come by his chops naturally yet is driving off in somewhat of a different direction. With his long hair and almost headbanging enthusiasm, he takes his soloing into a slight metal edge. If he is ever let loose, he will spray paint the wall with some hellacious notes. And drummer Josh Freese is just simply one of the best.

Not everything Sting gave us was supercharged. He allowed “Shape Of My Heart” to float on that lovely melody and the elder Miller’s gentle guitar playing. And the Academy Award nominated “The Empty Chair,” which Sting wrote about journalist James Foley who was beheaded by Isis in 2014 and is in the documentary Jim: The James Foley Story is heartbreaking in nature and presentation. Sting explained that he was too emotional about the story to write a song when they asked him to do so. But then one day as his own family was gathering around him, he began thinking what he would do if one of his children were in captivity and how would he deal with it, and one of his thoughts would be to have an empty chair at the table for them. Sting performs it at the very end of his show, by himself, playing an acoustic guitar. After such a fantastic evening featuring songs new and classic, leave it to Sting to send us home thinking about more than the music we just heard. A subtle hint that the world is changing and each one of us can play a big part in making it a better place.

The post Sting, Joe Sumner and The Last Bandoleros Let Loose In New Orleans (SHOW REVIEW) appeared first on Glide Magazine.

 Blitzen Trapper will make their foray into the world of theater with Wild and Reckless, a new concert event written and performed by the band that will have its world premiere at The Armory in Portland, OR. The band has already recorded a limited-edition LP soundtrack for Wild and Reckless that will be available exclusively at performances and Entertainment Weekly has premiered the song “Love Live On” today which can be heard below. Co-directed by The Armory’s Associate Artistic Director Rose Riordan and Production Manager Liam Kaas-Lentz, Wild and Reckless will run on the U.S. Bank Main Stage for 28 performances. Preview performances begin March 16; the opening night/press night is March 24; and regular performances run through April 30.The band will be joined on stage by New York-based actor Laura Carbonell, making her debut at The Armory, and Portland-favorite Leif Norby.

Blitzen Trapper mined their lyrical storytelling and Oregonian roots to create a story for the stage that fuses the energy of a rock concert with the imaginative possibility of the theater. Wild and Reckless traces the unforgettable tale of two kids on the run, in a futuristic vision of Portland’s past. This sci-fi dystopian love story features a rock score that marries previously unreleased songs with favorites from the band’s catalog, including “Black River Killer” and “Astronaut.” Portland Center Stage at The Armory commissionedWild and Reckless as the second world premiere in its new “Northwest Stories” series, dedicated to developing and producing stories about, or by artists from, the northwest region.

The band has recorded a limited-edition LP soundtrack of 10 songs that will be featured in the world premiere stage production. 500 vinyl and 500 CD copies will be available for sale exclusively at The Armory during performances only. The LP will include seven unreleased songs and three numbers from the band’s catalog: “Black River Killer” from the 2008 album Furr; “Below the Hurricane” from the 2010 album Destroyer of the Void; and “Astronaut” from the 2011 album American Goldwing (all three tracks courtesy of Sub Pop Records). The new tracks were recorded by Gregg Williams; mixed by James Brown at The Union, NY; and mastered by Adam Gonsalves at Telegraph Mastering. The vinyl was pressed at Cascade Record Pressing in Milwaukie, OR.

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The Oscars are back, and this time it’s personal. Well, sort of. After last year’s #oscarssowhite debacle, the Academy added a few folks to their line-up and decidedly wandered up and down the film circuit to bring a diverse set of nominees to the spotlight. While there were a few snubs (*cough* Amy Adams), for the most part this year they were on point. So as we eagerly await, or at the least quietly wonder about, the awards ceremony, let us speculate who will bring home the gold. Since we know you’ll be spending a predominant amount of time during the ceremony chatting with friends or flipping back and forth through channels, we’re going to go ahead and stick to the most anticipated awards.

Best Picture- La La Land

While I’m tempted to say Moonlight, drop the mic, and be done with these predictions, the truth is La La Land is more than likely taking this one home. Yes, it was a delightful romp into yesteryear delving deep into the dregs of how tough it is to “make it” and not fuck it up. But if we’re being honest, La La Land didn’t match up to the emotionally draining heavy hitters that were released this year. As cliché as it is, we all know Hollywood is in love with itself, so it should come as no surprise when the musical takes Best Picture.

Best Actor- Casey Affleck

Honestly, it should probably go to Denzel. Affleck is a mess of a human who can spill his emotional turmoil into his roles as part of his acting process. His performance was fantastic, and while Manchester By the Sea was heavily talked about throughout the year, it’s going to get overlooked for the most part.

Best Actress- Natalie Portman

So Ruth Negga could roll up on this one. I didn’t care for Loving, but the acting was superb. However, Portman’s visceral portrayal of American sweetheart Jackie O was literally a look into the raw power of grief. Portman was magnetic onscreen, creating a new standard for historical dramas. Everything from her mannerisms, to her vocal patterns matched that of the late first lady. It can’t be easy stepping into these perfectly shined and worn shoes, but she did it with a quintessential stride.

Best Supporting Actor- Mahershala Ali

This is where Moonlight will finally start to get its due. While Dev Patel is on the cusp of the Oscar, there was magic contained within Ali’s performance. Moonlight’s cast was so perfectly meshed together, and Ali’s portrayal of Juan cemented the fact that he belongs squarely within the Hollywood elite. It wasn’t an easy role to take on, but his hidden fragility matched his innate machismo personification of the father figure. As fucked as it is, he also has a good chance of taking it home due to his race. After last year’s bad press, the Academy will be intent on showing their all players are equal card. Good thing he deserves the award on his own merits.

Best Supporting Actress- Viola Davis

Hands down. Truthfully Davis should have been nominated for Best Actress, and the fact that she was pushed into Supporting is a travesty in itself. Fences deserves the acclaim, but unfortunately, it’s up against a wall of incredible art this year and will likely get drowned out. While I wouldn’t be mad if Michelle Williams walked with it, Davis’ performance was the most striking.

Best Director- Barry Jenkins

This is the year. Jenkins will be the first black man to take home the Oscar for Best Director. Moonlight will not get the acclaim it deserves, but this could be the historical moment that defines both the academy, and the indie film genre. Quietly powerful, and loudly versatile, the film captures the life of Chiron as he navigates the perpetual horrors of growing into all that he fears most. Jenkins’ vision is one of pure hope, fear, and darkness. If there was ever a time for the acutely raw emotion stemming from the film, it is now.

Foreign Language- A Man Called Ove

There’s always going to be issues from folks who spend their whole life complaining. Because of this, the Academy is going to start working harder to include everyone. That said, A Man Called Ove would be the safe choice for best Foreign Language this year. It’s been critically acclaimed all over the board, and it delves into ageism.

Animated Film- Kubo and the Two Strings

Kubo has a great chance of taking it this year. The gorgeous film should tremble the hands of the almighty Disney syndicate, but fortunately Disney has two films up for awards this year. Kubo might be a gamble, but between its fantastical story line and breathtaking animation, there’s a high possibility that it will take it.

Screenplay- Manchester By the Sea

Manchester could easily walk with Best Original Screenplay. Like Moonlight and Portman’s Jackie, it deals with a new level of emotion that’s normally reserved for wallowing and sobbing alone in the throes of one’s own twisted existence. It’s critical to note the importance of the film’s underbelly, and Screenplay is a perfect way of doing that.

Song- City of Stars

I mean…duh.

The 89th annual Academy Awards air Sunday night at 8:30/7:30 central, live on ABC.

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