With its chorus of “I need this shit like I need another hole in my head,” Sarah Shook and the Disarmers’ “New Ways To Fail,” the new single off of their sophomore album Years (released earlier this year on Bloodshot Records), has the potential to become a bit of an anthem.
And not only is the song a perfect example of Shook’s catchy as hell songwriting, but the video may also have the potential to catalyze an as yet unexplored crossover between country music and skateboarding. Check it out:
With strong tracks like “Alcoholics” and “Julian! I Want To Be a Dancer!” off of her 2013 album Sleepyhead, Swedish singer-songwriter Sibille Attar first caught my ear a few years ago and got me wondering what was next for her. Well, here we are five years later and she’s back with a new EP, Paloma’s Hand, released earlier this year on PNKSLM Recordings.
Attar’s harmonized vocal on not-quite-title-track “Paloma” combined with the song’s psychedelic yet poppy arrangement sort of brings to mind First Aid Kit collaborating with Animal Collective. An intriguing mix. Check it out:
Gomez’s Bring It On might have been the first or only album I bought on the strength of an award.
You see, Bring It On came out around the time I started paying serious attention to music. I had fallen in love with Pulp’s Different Class a few years prior and was pretty content just letting Columbia House/BMG and MuchMusic guide me through the Britpop landscape. It was actually pretty easy to familiarize myself with the Blurs, Oasis’s and the Verves of the world since they were quite popular in the mid-’90s. Brits were the hot thing. Elastica, Supergrass and even Kula Shaker had mainstream hits.
However, as the late ’90s hit, the trends had changed and Britpop died a slow painful death. My heart had been set on British music already so as my favorite bands broke up or transformed their sound to a less favorable to radio aesthetic, it became harder and harder to find that type of music. Only then did I start looking at weekly mags and this strange thing called the internet for more of the music I loved.
So I discovered this thing called the Mercury Prize which went to the best record of the year and without hesitation bought Bring it On, which was the winner that year. It was my first exposure to Gomez.
What came next was a bit of confusion, I had thought it would be well … Britpoppy. To my surprise, I enjoyed it. Gomez has that bluesy-rock kind of sound, but not in that cheesy I’m wearing a fedora kind of way. I’ve always liked the strong contrast between Ian Ball and Ben Ottewell’s vocals, which adds a lot more depth to their tracks. “78 Stone Wobble” and “Get Myself Arrested” were the first of many singles that found success. My actual favorite song is “We Haven’t Turned Around,” off their second record Liquid Skin (which I think was also on the American Beauty soundtrack).
Anyways, it’s been 20 years since the release of that first record, and the band is touring in celebration. They will be at the Danforth Music Hall on Tuesday June 5th. The last time they were here, it was at the Mod Club and that show was a delight. I’m sure this one will be equally great.
