Songs Vol. 2/XX - 2/XX — Couch Slut, Josh Johnson, Keegan Powell, METZ, Joy Guidry, Clarion Void
The pause on February’s mixtape is now depressed and there are quite a few tracks to add.
Outdoor warmth is slowly taking hold and our days are getting longer. These days of familiar gray will soon shine with technicolor brilliance. Looking forward to some gentler temps. Less rain would be nice as well.
Thanks for listening and reading.
In the mood for something confrontational and uncomfortable? Look no further than Couch Slut, whose abrasive new single “Ode To Jimbo” announces an upcoming new LP, You Could Do It Tonight. As this first-person account of an inebriate’s evening (or, perhaps even Jimbo’s constant reality) is expressed via Megan Osztrosits’ coarse vocal and bleak, chugging instrumentation , “Ode To Jimbo” ably conveys the hell of dependency:
”You always know when it’s time to leave / I know all the best places to heave”.
“Ode To Jimbo” would make for an effective PSA.
Brutal Panda Records is issuing You Could Do It Tonight on 4/19.
Links:
Couch Slut — Bandcamp
Brutal Panda Records — Pre-order link
Links, knowledge, and sounds were handed over courtesy of another / side:
Recorded amidst the filth of NYC with Uniform's Ben Greenberg (Drab Majesty, Portrayal of Guilt, Metz) and mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis Studios in London (Blur, Nick Cave, Thom Yorke), Couch Slut subverts the paradigm and ups the ante in every imaginable way across nine vignettes of perverse, true-to-life storytelling layered over the band's singular, dragged-through-the-mud songcraft. This is a depraved style of noise rock that will scare the living shit out of you. Guest appearances from members of fellow NYC compatriots Imperial Triumphant & Pyrrhon scatter across the album, adding layers of cacophony.
With ten full years of pain and suffering under their proverbial belt, along with three prior full-length albums My Life As A Woman (2014), Contempt (2017), and Take A Chance On Rock ‘n’ Roll (2020), Couch Slut sounds more urgent, threatening, nasty and despondent than ever, and You Could Do It Tonight is the perfect soundtrack for 2024.
Josh Johnson’s “Free Mechanical” is a pleasantly warped electro-jazz instrumental, persistent exhalation and melodic phrasing chopped up into an unexpected and pulse-driven stack of detached notes set to sampled percussion. The solo during the bridge is smooth as silk. Johnson, a prolific collaborator and solo artist, is releasing a new album called Unusual Object, which will be out 4/5/24 via Northern Spy Records.
Links:
Josh Johnson — Bandcamp / Official Site
Northern Spy — Pre-order link
Links, knowledge, and sounds were handed over courtesy of Clandestine Label Services:
Josh Johnson’s latest solo record, Unusual Object is a world of sound. Johnson’s fantastically processed saxophone and subtle samples and grooves give this work a sort of cyberpunk ambient jazz feel that occasionally crosses into realms akin to classic Warp Records and Jon Hassell’s dreamworld tonalities. But however fantastical and dreamlike Unusual Object may be, these qualities only serve to bring the listener closer to Johnson, to his breath, his sense of song. What, after all, could be more intimate than sitting inside someone’s fantasies and dreams?
Johnson executes this all with an indelible elegance, establishing him as a worthy contemporary of fellow modern avant-garde composers like Lea Bertucci, Ian William Craig, and Kelly Moran. Like the latter’s carefully considered prepared piano compositions, Unusual Object is stately, personal, and patently modern.
Johnson is a highly in-demand collaborator, working often with Makaya McCraven, Marquis Hill and The Chicago Underground Quartet. He produced and played on Meshell Ndegeocello’s Grammy-nominated The Omnichord Real Book and worked for many years as musical director for Leon Bridges. He’s appeared on recordings by Broken Bells, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Harry Styles and his playing shines brilliantly on the Jeff Parker ETA Quartet’s Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy. Johnson indeed is an indelible part of the Los Angeles scene that gave shape to André 3000’s audaciously transcendent New Blue Sun. But Johnson is no mere supporting character.
Last year, he made a change. Pulling away from some of his more rigid gigs, Johnson chose to venture further into the realms of his own playing and to further sharpen his own compositional voice. Unusual Object, Johnson says, “is a development and documentation of a more personal world of sound.” This development has been ongoing, for sure, but often in the context of other people’s music. With Unusual Object Johnson asks: “What’s it like for me to create the context for my sound, to frame it myself?”
The answer is the spare but endlessly engaging Unusual Object, a work of futuristic jazz and modern composition that will appeal to fans of everything from Oneohtrix Point Never to Shabaka Hutchings, from Plaid to Ornette Coleman.
“In My Cave” by Keegan Powell has the tone of fuzz-infused sugar. Similar to a songwriter like Bob Mould, whose lyrics sometimes relay personal darkness while dressed in up-tempo and anthemic indie pop, Powell’s soothing and echoing vocal glides over six-string sweetness, communicating retreat (“I’ve been locked in my cave / I got so down today”).
“In My Cave” was taken from Powell’s recently released album Alien Radio.
Links:
Keegan Powell — Instagram / TikTok
Alien Radio — Streaming links
Always happy to hear new METZ tracks.
Two new videos surfaced a bit ago (I’m late, unfortunately) as announcement for the band’s upcoming new album, Up On Gravity Hill. For both tracks, attention to melody is immediately noticeable, especially for “Entwined (Street Light Buzz)”, which I honestly prefer over “99”. METZ have been consistent and sturdy racket generators for long enough that it makes sense to attempt some accessibility, consider hooks, and widen the perimeters of their lane a tad.
METZ will be touring in support of Up On Gravity Hill and performing at Underground Arts (in Philly) with Gouge Away on 4/20. METZ remain one of the best live bands I’ve had the pleasure to see. The first time I saw them play live at the First Unitarian in Philly, vocalist/guitarist Alex Edkins pushed himself so hard physically during one song that an audience member told him to “calm down”, which offended the shit out of me. Do you know how often I’ve been denied a good show by artists/bands that couldn’t be bothered to manufacture the smallest amount of perceptible interest in the crowd to justify the expense of paying to see them? Edkins nearly pushed himself into a coma on stage with the fucks he gave and an audience member told him to calm down. Some people don’t know when they’re witnessing something great.
Release date for Up On Gravity Hill is 4/12 via Sub Pop.
Links:
METZ — Instagram / Official Site
Sub Pop — Pre-order link
Links, knowledge, and sounds were handed over courtesy of Sub Pop:
On April 12th, METZ will release Up On Gravity Hill, their first album in 4 years, on Sub Pop for the world ex-Canada and in Canada on Dine Alone. The album was engineered by Seth Manchester (Mdou Moctar, Lingua Ignota, Battles, The Body) and features guest performances from Amber Webber of Black Mountain and composer/string arranger Owen Pallett.
METZ, a band once known for blowing out eardrums with songs of joyous rage, have, over their past few records, begun exploring ways to turn abrasiveness into atmospherics, the evolution of their sound not only a reflection of the maturing of the band themselves but also of a changed world that demands nuance and compassion to comprehend and to survive. This is so on their latest effort, Up On Gravity Hill, which finds the band continuing to bend the raw power of rock music to its most delicate, intricate ends. Delivering a deep, detailed, and unyieldingly personal collection of songs that are fused together to form not only METZ’s most powerful record to date but also their most beautiful.
To spotlight this evolution, the band has shared two new contrasting singles: the stomping motorik “99,” and the charging and deeply melodic, “Entwined (Street Light Buzz)”, that offers a dreamier Swervedriver-esque guitar sheen never before utilized by the Canadian trio.
METZ frontman Alex Edkins says, “These two songs couldn't be more stylistically and thematically dissimilar. ‘Entwined (Street Light Buzz)’ is a song about the deep connection humans can foster with one another and how we carry people with us forever, even after death. ‘99’ is about the scourge of corporate greed and bottom-line thinking that runs rampant in modern society. Anything for a buck is the message being sent to younger generations.”
METZ is also announcing headlining international tour dates supporting Up On Gravity Hill, with dates in North America from April 17th to May 17th and a run of UK and EU dates in the fall from November 3rd through November 29th. The band also has a series of UK and EU festival performances in August, including stops at The Green Man Festival in the UK, La Route Du Rock and Cabaret Vert Festival in France, and the Canela Party in Spain. See below for a full list of shows.
The cathartic soul of Joy Guidry’s “Members Don’t Get Weary" is palpable and powerful. In spite of the undercurrent storm of multi-instrumental improv that seems locked in frustrated preamble, that voice ably cuts through the mire. Its resolve intensifies with every listen.
“Members Don’t Get Weary” is featured in Guidry’s upcoming album Amen, which is being released by Whited Sepulchre Records on 5/10/24.
Links:
Joy Guidry — Instagram / Official Site
Whited Sepulchre Records — Pre-order link
Links, knowledge, and sounds were handed over courtesy of Clandestine Label Services:
Love is a verb. It is an action taken, one that must be renewed within the self. It is a process of learning, evolution, and the very nature of what it means to nurture ourselves and others. And few artists know this as intimately as Joy Guidry, the Texas-bred, California-based bassoonist. The fruits of her efforts can be heard through Guidry's latest album, Amen.
“I hear other artists say, ‘I put my life and soul into this.’ And I could never relate because I have never been in an emotional place where I can just let go and not be afraid of vulnerability,” says Guidry. “But now, I've finally made a project that resonates with me so deeply from beginning to end. I'm so happy where I am in life, and “Amen” truly represents that there was no bullshit as I went into this.”
Born and raised in Houston Texas, Guidry first found music through the church. Growing up, if r&b was for cleaning on Saturdays, then gospel, says Guidry, was the standard for Sundays.
After years of performing other people's music, Guidry began making her own. Focused and intentional, Guidry is a visionary. Her keen understanding of how different genres of music can speak to and meld into one another mimics the intricacies and interwoven elements of life. Her releases include commissioned works as well as her debut full-length Radical Acceptance released in 2022.
Recognizing her trans identity and embracing the need to make difficult decisions with the people in her life brought forth the heart of Radical Acceptance. “There's nothing wrong with us. There's nothing wrong with any of us, when we look in the mirror, and we see something wrong, that was purely taught,” Guidry says. “I felt like I could never walk into my life. So after releasing Radical Acceptance, it was time for me to truly practice radical acceptance and understanding and practicing radical self love.”
Amen is the next step forward, one that calls in the power of community when embodying our true selves. “I wanted to give a voice and give power and provide community to the people I love and truly care for on this record by tackling songs and challenging myself,” Guidry says. “I knew I got the right people, the right community to drive it home, to take my ideas and really bring it together.”
Sometimes, we think of change as a settled process, one that marks a beginning, a middle, and an end. But Guidry knows the truth, one that requires each of us to keep digging, keep pushing ourselves beyond the limitations of our comfort zones. And Amen tells the story—in playful genre experimentations and heady ruminations of richly embodied instrumentation.
In part, this can be heard in Guidry's sources of inspiration. Her musical origins begin in the South, in the springy rhythms of zydeco and the liberating voices of gospel.
Other influences find a home in her work, too. If Jazmine Sullivan were to make a bassoon record, it would be this. Piercing and purposeful, raw and real, Guidry’s past and present music permeates with intelligence and openness. Sonically, the meditative pulses of ambient music blended with elements of jazz and soul, forming something new and true.
But the most impactful moments were born within Guidry herself. Art manifests in all of life's stages and circumstances, but the most powerful and piercing forms of art—of music—are a manifestation of the creator's greatest truths. “How do you survive? How do I survive? How do my friends survive?” asks Guidry. “The writing process is kind of like therapy in a way. And I really feel like a different person now.”
I love a good doom-laden crawl, especially when there’s a gratifying payoff. Clarion Void’s “The Bottom” is featured on the group's latest LP, Failure In Repetition, its initial muck-slung drag shifting into a break of heightened tempo and six-string Sabbathry.
Lost Future Records is issuing Failure In Repetition on 3/1/24.
Links:
Clarion Void — Bandcamp / Instagram
Lost Future Records — Official Site
Links, knowledge, and sounds were handed over courtesy of Us/Them Group:
Failure in Repetition is the newest album from the Colorado Springs, CO based doom-metal quartet Clarion Void. Focused on themes of inevitability and the futility of progress, the album crushes the listener with detuned, sludgy riffs before exploding into a breakneck black metal onslaught. Not for the faint of heart.
Failure in Repetition was recorded with Grammy nominated producer Greg Wilkinson (High on Fire, Pallbearer) at his Earhammer Studio in Oakland, CA. The quartet — Greg Mullenax (guitar/vocals), Bryan Webb (bass), Evan Courtland (guitar) and James Ivy (drums) — sequestered themselves in Oakland to capture the album’s immersive vibe.
“‘The Bottom’ is technically the first act before ‘The Top’” Mullenax explains. “It's the first song we wrote for Failure In Repetition and kind of spawned the idea of the album having repetitive chord progressions over and over again.”
The band’s 2023 debut album Deafening Sounds of Mortality was a crushing work derived of interpersonal pain which received a wealth of praise for its overwhelming mood and weaving of doom, black metal, crust and experimental sludge into a new sound. Here, the band builds on that effort with greater dynamic range and more elaborate songwriting.
Sincerely,
Letters From A Tapehead
