It’s that time of year again. The season for reissued, overpriced color discs, and faux-rare 7” singles. Record Store Day has come and gone every year since _____. A day where thousands (probably hundreds, let’s be honest) flock to the last remaining record store in their town and pay through the nose for pressings of their favorite Jack White album. Beatles reissue in 50 years and remembering fondly the days of the nostalgia revival of an obsolete and inefficient music medium? I love vinyl…but c’mon. It’s, like, fetishized nostalgia. Whatever, I sound like an old killjoy. Get off my proverbial lawn, assholes.
Courtney Barnett – Everybody Here Hates You
Just in time for record store day, in fact, is a brand new Courtney Barnett track. Her first since the release of last years sophomore album Tell Me How You Really Feel (that’s 2018 B.C, for those keeping track). Everybody Here Hates You premiered on Australia’s Triple J radio last week, and stands as a sputtering slow burn not too dissimilar from anything else in her catalogue. If you’re thinking “hey, this sounds like Jeff Buckley’s “Everybody Here Wants You”, then I’d say you’re right. Barnett said she was partly inspired by the 1998 track, though instead took to lyrics about self-loathing, depression and general social anxiety. The performance is loose, but in the way that doesn’t feel sloppy or amateurish. With wispy organs hissing away in the background, the track opens up into a very spacious chorus; one that might be fun to sing along to when / if you see her live.
Listen to Everybody Here Hates You.
Music video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugUFu8XUjgA
Sinkane – Dépaysé
Good things come in pairs, is that what they say? No? Anyway: Sudanese-American singer and multi-instrumentalist Ahmed Gallab (AKA Sinkane) is back with his second single, Dépaysé, and the announcement of his new album of the same name. That title, Dépaysé, is a French word meaning “removed from one’s habitual surroundings.” It’s emblematic of the themes that Sinkane is exploring with these new tracks; themes of finding one’s place as an immigrant in the United States. Soaked in a blistering guitar lead and punctuated by stuttering drums, Dépaysé is a nod to Sudanese folk music with tinges of psych rock throw into the fray.
Gallab posted a letter on the City Slang website, “As always, I’m inspired by Sly Stone, Fela Kuti, George Clinton and Bob Marley, as well as the beautiful music of east Africa (especially the Dur Dur Band from Somalia, Mulatu Astatkefrom Ethiopia, and Mohammed Wardi from Sudan). These people all spoke their minds confidently in front of a beat that made you dance. They welcomed every kind of person into their worlds with open arms.”
Dépaysé is out on May 31 on City Slang.
Patio – Essentials
Loren! Alice! Lindsey! Patio are a Brooklyn-based post-punk trio formed in the year 2014 A.D. Five years ago! Born around the same time that so many DIY venues were shuttering (i.e Death by Audio, Palisades, Glasslands, Shea Stadium etc. // RIP to all), Patio came in at an nebulous time for New York City’s independent music community. While five years can be an eternity for a music scene, it can be enough to fully develop your sound, and they’ve spent the past several years doing just that. Essentials is a testament the group’s songwriting abilities. Tracks like “Scum” are angular, jarring and laden with meandering guitar leads while tracks like “Vile Bodies” steeps itself directly in fun, lo-fi post-punk goodness. It’s no-frills instrumentation and earnest songwriting make Essentials something to check out.
Essentials is out now on Fire Talk.
Crumb – Nina
Last but oh so certainly not least, we have new music from Boston-based Crumb. If you know this band, you know that they’ve built their name on top of cascading jazz lines, sweeping synths and spacious melodies (see: 2017’s Locket for a brief introduction). Last week, Crumb announced the arrival of their debut album, Jinx and shared their newest single, “Nina” with the world. In true crumb-like fashion, “Nina” opens with brightly colored synths layered over a stammering drum beat. The vocals float through the track like warm butter while the instrumentation evolves into a hazy neo-psychedelic dream. It’s like listening to am radio late on a Friday night in midsummer.
Jinx is out June 14th
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