“Hotline” is Lael Neale’s effervescent new single and video, and is available today worldwide on all DSPs from Sub Pop. The song was written by Neale in collaboration with her friend, Jane McCarthy, arranged and produced by Guy Blakeslee, and mastered by Chris Coady. “Hotline” follows the release of Acquainted with Night, her acclaimed album of 2021.
In celebration of the new song, fans can dial a “hotline” to connect with Neale, and she will read callers’ fortunes for 2022. The number will be active beginning today, January 11th from noon - 5 pm ET. Neale explains, “I became interested in numerology through John Lennon and his belief in the significance of numbers, specifically the number nine. Because this song imagines a late night call of desperation into a psychic hotline, I thought it’d be fun to act as that ‘psychic’ and connect with people directly, giving them a personalized fortune for this year based on their unique numerology.” Call 858-224-3129 today!
Neale’s Acquainted with Night features ten tracks and includes the standouts “Blue Vein,” “Every Star Shivers in the Dark,” “For No One For Now,” and the title cut, and is available on CD/LP/CS/DSPs through Sub Pop. The album was composed and arranged by Neale, produced and mixed by Blakeslee, and mastered by Chris Coady.
Upon its release Acquainted with Night saw praise from the likes of Uncut, MOJO, Loud & Quiet, The AV Club, Stereogum, SPIN, and earned “Best of 2021” placement from the likes of Under the Radar, Les Inrocks, Aquarium Drunkard, Gold Flake Paint, Still Listening, Secret Meeting and more.
What people are saying about Lael Neale: “Who knew the world was lacking a country-folk version of Broadcast until now?” - ★★★★ MOJO
“With her Omnichord, the singer/songwriter exposes the nerve endings of her songs.” ★★★★★ - Musikexpress
“This album reminds listeners that life is full of beauty not in spite of, but because of, the ordinary details of every day.” [8/10] - Loud & Quiet
“…an intimate, lo-fi set of songs that seem unearthed from the dusty vaults of time.” ★★★★ - The Forty Five
“The simplicity is part of what makes her record so beautiful; just her voice, her words, her electric guitar, and her omnichord are enough to put the listener in a trance.” - SPIN
“The result is the urgent melodies and unadorned instrumentals on Acquainted With Night, a collection of songs that’s disarmingly poetic in its simplicity.” - The AV Club
“Her lyrics are intuitive, meandering between memory and fantasy. As she ponders the rituals of the mundane – folding sheets, making toast, watching strangers in the street – her old-timey vocals and country-folk melodies make gorgeous, placid trails, gently crackling on the four-track tape.” - The Guardian
“With a celestial voice stripped of any artifice, Lael Neale skillfully blends romance and the banality of life with brilliant songs of drama and humor.” - Les Inrocks
“…There is a raw, unvarnished energy screaming throughout these 10 tunes.” [8/10],Northern Transmissions
“Lael Neale’s second album weaves intimacy with dreamy, Omnichordal magic.” - Secret Meeting
“A collection of intimate, powerful, and incredibly relatable songs, Acquainted with Night paints a portrait of solitude that resonates with the current state of the world.“ - Monster Children
Sub Pop is ecstatic to welcome Guerilla Toss to their iconic roster of artists. The label will be releasing their latest effort, Famously Alive on March 25th. After a decade sprinkling glitter into grit, building a reputation as one of the most ferociously creative art-rock groups working, the upstate New York band have eased fully into their light. This is Guerilla Toss at their most luminescent – awake, alive, and extending an open invitation to anyone who wants to soak it all up beside them.
Singer and lyricist Kassie Carlson, multi-instrumentalist Peter Negroponte and guitarist Arian Shafiee wrote Famously Alive at home in the Catskills during the pervading quiet of the pandemic year. Together with guitarist Arian Shafiee, Carlson and Negroponte cultivated a sound that spliced together psychedelic texturing and Krautrock syncopation with the gloss and glow of contemporary pop music.
The group’s debut single and album opener, “Cannibal Capital,” is a song about the exhaustion and dread of social anxiety. The song came together in a flurry toward the end of the album’s sessions. A taut bass groove erupts into competing squalls of guitar and synth that support one of the most immediate and arresting vocal hooks of Guerilla Toss’s catalog to date.
The band will embark on a 16 date North American tour beginning Apr. 13th in Richmond VA. With additional shows in Atlanta, Milwaukee, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, Philadelphia, and Queens, NY. See below for a full list of shows.
Tour Dates:
Wed. Apr. 13- Richmond, VA - Richmond Music Hall
Thu. Apr. 14 - Carrboro, NC - Cat’s Cradle
Fri. Apr. 15 - Atlanta, GA - Aisle 5
Sat. Apr 16 - Nashville, TN - The Blue Room @ Third Man Records
Sun. Apr. 17 - Louisville, KY - Zanzabar
Tue. Apr. 19 - Milwaukee, WI - Cactus Club
Wed. Apr. 20 - Chicago, IL - The Empty Bottle
Thu. Apr. 21 - Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop
Fri. Apr. 22 - Toronto, ON - The Garrison
Sat. Apr. 23 - Montreal, QC - Bar Le Ritz P.D.B
Mon. Apr. 25 - Portland, ME - Space
Tue. Apr. 26 - Somerville, MA - Crystal Ballroom at Somerville
Dig deep enough inside yourself – start treating your body as your sanctuary rather than your enemy – and eventually you’ll find yourself blooming right back out into the sun. That’s the transformation Guerilla Toss trace on their newest album Famously Alive, their effervescent Sub Pop debut. After a decade sprinkling glitter into grit, building a reputation as one of the most ferociously creative art-rock groups working, the upstate New York band have eased fully into their light. This is Guerilla Toss at their most luminescent – awake, alive, and extending an open invitation to anyone who wants to soak it all up beside them.
Singer and lyricist Kassie Carlson, multi-instrumentalist Peter Negroponte and guitarist Arian Shafiee wrote Famously Alive at home in the Catskills during the pervading quiet of the pandemic year. The uncertainty of COVID-19 lockdowns and the total disruption of routine forced Carlson to negotiate with herself in new and challenging ways. “You have to be with yourself all the time during the pandemic,” she says. “I had to figure out a way to manage my anxiety. The pandemic was hard, but it helped me get comfortable inside my own body. My peace of mind came out of being thrust into the deepest shit. This album is all about being happy, being alive, strength. It’s meant to inspire people.”
The album’s title derives from a poem written by a close friend of the band, Jonny Tatelman, who supported Carlson through the early stages of her recovery from opiate addiction. The poem comprises the entirety of the lyrics to the title track, an exuberant ode to loving your own survival and charting a course into unconditional self-acceptance. “The song ‘Famously Alive’ is about living with purpose and excitement whether you’re famous or not, accepting your strangeness and thriving even if your successes look different than other people’s,” notes Carlson. “To me, ‘Famously Alive’ means flipping the notion of dying famously to living famously,” Negroponte adds. “I also like to think of it as a way to describe living through something traumatic and coming out of it a stronger, wiser person.”
Songs like the expansive, gleaming “Live Exponential” similarly invite the listener to lean into the light. “It’s about loving yourself and finding a way to be comfortable in your own body – to live life to the fullest and beyond,” says Carlson. Throughout the record, Guerilla Toss meet themselves with curiosity, generosity, and acceptance even for the harder parts of being alive. Opener “Cannibal Capital,” a song about the exhaustion and dread of social anxiety, came together in a flurry toward the end of the album’s sessions. A taut bass groove erupts into competing squalls of guitar and synth that support one of the most immediate and arresting vocal hooks of Guerilla Toss’s catalog to date.
Together with guitarist Arian Shafiee, Carlson and Negroponte cultivated a sound that spliced together psychedelic texturing and Krautrock syncopation with the gloss and glow of contemporary pop music. “I like to combine as many musical influences as possible,” says Negroponte. “We thought the sleekness of current radio pop would make our dense wall-of-sound aesthetic both more bizarre and more accessible and fun at the same time.” Carlson was similarly inspired by a wide range of artists from around the world after diving deep into obscure 7-inches for her weekly show on Radio Catskill, Rare Pear Radio.
While writing the album, Carlson took voice lessons online for the first time. Though she has been singing since she was four years old, at first with a vocal harmony group in her family’s church, she hadn’t formally trained her voice since joining Guerilla Toss. The lessons allowed her to deepen and broaden her range, helping her feel more embodied and connected to her voice. Underneath ripples of Auto-Tune, playful, searching vocal melodies suspend lyrics about reaching for yourself and holding fast in your own love.
Famously Alive finds Guerilla Toss coming into the fullness of their power, celebrating their prismatic idiosyncrasies from a place of optimism and abundance. “It felt like I didn’t need to force myself into this dark place to create anymore,” Carlson says. “For the first time in my life, I feel like I’m finally comfortable inside my body.
Charlie Gabriel has signed to Sub Pop to release his debut album 89.The album, which features the highlights “I’m Confessin’” and ”The Darker It Gets,” will be available on DSPs February 25th, 2022, and released on CD/LP/CS July 1st, 2022 worldwide from Sub Pop.
Charlie is the most senior member of the legendary New Orleans Jazz ensemble, Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Charlie’s first professional gig dates to 1943, sitting in for his father in New Orleans’ Eureka Brass Band. As a teenager living in Detroit, Charlie played with Lionel Hampton, whose band just then also included a young Charles Mingus, later spending nine years with a group led by Cab Calloway drummer, J.C. Heard. While he’s also fronted a bebop quintet, played and/or toured with Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennet, Aretha Franklin and many more, this is the first time his name appears on the front of a record, as a bandleader.
Since 2006, he’s been a member of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and has developed a tight musical relationship with the group’s bassist and tuba player, Ben Jaffe. The two men, along with guitarist Joshua Starkman, recorded Charlie’s new album 89 throughout 2020 and 2021.
89 includes six jazz standards and two new pieces, “The Darker It Gets” and “Yellow Moon”.” Charlie describes the repertoire, which includes “Stardust,” “I’m Confessin’” and “Three Little Words,” as “standard material that every musician if they’re an older musician like myself, will have played throughout their career. Every time I play one of these tunes the interpretation is a little bit different.”
He plays tenor sax and clarinet throughout, Starkman plays guitar, and Jaffe plays bass, drums, and keyboards. You can listen to the debut offerings, “I’m Confessin’” and “The Darker It Get” by clicking here. There is also an official video for “I’m Confessin’,” which was directed by Alex Hennen Payne. You can watch the video by clicking here.
“I’ve been playing since I was 11 years old,” says Charlie Gabriel, the most senior member of the legendary Preservation Hall Band, “I never did anything in my life but play music. I’ve been blessed with that gift that God gave me, and I’ve tried to nurse it the best way I knew how.”
While he’s faced plenty of challenges nursing that gift for more than 78 years, none likely rank with last winter’s passing of his brother and last living sibling, Leonard, lost to COVID-19. For the first time ever, Gabriel put down his horn, filling his days and weeks instead with dark reflection, a stubborn despondency broken now and then by regular chess matches in the studio kitchen of Hall leader Ben Jaffe, working overtime to bring his friend some light.
One such afternoon also included Joshua Starkman, sitting off in a corner playing his guitar and half-watching the chess from a distance. When Charlie returned the next day, he brought his saxophone. “I was just inspired to try it, to play again. It had been a long time, and a guitar makes me feel free. I do love the sound of a piano, but it takes up a lot of a space, keeps me kind of boxed in.”
That day was to be the first session for 89, almost entirely the work of Gabriel, Jaffe and Starkman, recorded mostly right there, in the kitchen, by Matt Aguiluz.
Charlie Gabriel’s first professional gig dates to 1943, sitting in for his father in New Orleans’ Eureka Brass Band. As a teenager living in Detroit, Charlie played with Lionel Hampton, whose band just then also included a young Charles Mingus, later spending nine years with a group led by Cab Calloway drummer, J.C. Heard. While he’s also fronted a bebop quintet, played and/or toured with Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennet, Aretha Franklin and many more, this is the first time his name appears on the front of a record, as a bandleader.
Since 2006, Gabriel has been a member of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, featuring prominently on That’s It, So It Is, and Tuba to Cuba. 89 was different, and not simply due to a smaller ensemble. “We had no particular plan, or any particular insight on what we were gonna do. But we were enjoying what we were doing, jamming, having a musical conversation,” Charlie says, further musing, “Musical conversations cancel out complications.”
89 includes six standards and two newer pieces on which Gabriel is a writer: “Yellow Moon,” and “The Darker It Gets”.” The record also marks Charlie’s return to his first instrument, clarinet, on many of the tracks. “The clarinet is the mother of the saxophone,” he says. “I started playing clarinet early in life, and this [taught me] the saxophone.”
Finally, 89 includes three tracks of Charlie singing…
“I always sung, but it wasn’t my forte to become a singer,” he says. “The truth is, people often develop a real relationship with a song once they hear the words. Sometimes I enjoy singing them.”
Charlie Gabriel 89
Tracklisting: 1. Memories of You 2. Chelsea Bridge 3. I’m Confessin’ 4. The Darker It Gets 5. Stardust 6. Three Little Word 7. Yellow Moon 8. I Get Jealous
Suki Waterhouse has announced her upcoming full-length debut album, I Can’t Let Go, will be released Friday, April 22nd via Sub Pop Records. Additionally, she has released a brand-new single from the album, “Melrose Meltdown,” accompanied by a stylized and gorgeous music video directed by Sofia Malamute. Both “Melrose Meltdown” and I Can’t Let Go are produced by Grammy-Nominated Producer & Songwriter Brad Cook (Bon Iver, War On Drugs, Snail Mail, Waxahatchee). “Melrose Meltdown” is the third release off I Can’t Let Go; “Moves” and “My Mind,” the album’s first two songs, were released in October 2021.
“Melrose Meltdown” puts Suki’s evocative vocals on display and features her signature style of singing in haunting refrains. Suki welcomes listeners into her Melrose Meltdown where “nobody ever breaks up, we just break down.” The music video highlights the beautiful loneliness Suki croons about by showcasing her dancing solo in fragmented light. Later in the video, Suki is seen singing to the camera in the back of a pickup truck with palm trees overhead, cruising down what we can only assume must be Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles.
Suki Waterhouse catalogs the most intimate, formative, and significant moments of her life through songs. You might recognize her name or her work as singer, songwriter, and actress, but you’ll really get to know the multi-faceted artist through her music. Growing up in London, Suki gravitated towards music’s magnetic pull and always saw the medium as a way of expressing creativity and telling stories. Previous singles “Brutally”, “Good Looking” and “Valentine” drew comparisons to the Paisley Underground sound of Mazzy Star and to the 60s influenced girl group reimagining of bands like Stockholm’s The Concretes and Glasgow’s Camera Obscura.
Earlier this month, Suki was named by both NPR and Atwood Magazine as a 2022 Artist to Watch.
Previous Praise for Suki Waterhouse:
“…add to the mix her vocal style – calling to mind the exquisite tones of Elizabeth Fraser or Hope Sandoval – and a solid collection of early work that caught the ear of Sub Pop, and you’ve got a welcome addition to your 2022 playlist.” - NPR
“..sounds like what a Lana Del Rey deep cut mixed with Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides, Now” would sound like…Here’s to more pleasant surprises like this from her book of talents.” - NYLON
“…perfectly captures the liminal moments of heartbreak, reminding us that it’s never exactly good or bad — in the words of Waterhouse, “It just is.” - Refinery29
You can now watch Low’s new video for “I Can Wait,” directed by Manuel Aragon (who directed the group’s video for “Lies” from Ones & Sixes). The song is from HEY WHAT, their Grammy-nominated and massively acclaimed album from 2021.
HEY WHAT saw placement on many “Best Albums of 2021” lists and readers polls including:
The New Yorker: Amanda Petrusich (#8) New York Times:Lindsey Zoladz (#8) Gold Flake Paint (#11) PASTE (#12) AV Club (#13) Rolling Stone (#16) EXCLAIM! (#18) Loud and Quiet (#20) NPRMusic (#21) The Guardian (#31) Gorilla vs. Bear (#39) Louder Than War (#50) The Quietus (#98)
HEY WHAT also saw placement on Pitchfork’s “Best Rock Albums of 2021” and Rough Trade’s “100 Albums of 2021” lists. Meanwhile “Days Like These,” the album’s lead single, earned placement on “Best Songs of 2021” lists from Pitchfork (#3) and PASTE (#20).
Low’s previously announced international headline dates in support of HEY WHAT begin February 16th, 2022. For a full list of shows click here.
Tracklisting: 1. White Horses 2. I Can Wait 3. All Night 4. Disappearing 5. Hey 6. Days Like These 7. There’s a Comma After Still 8. Don’t Walk Away 9. More 10. The Price You Pay (It Must Be Wearing Off)
Today, Beach House is sharing Chapter 3 (of four) from Once Twice Melody, the group’s forthcoming double album, out February 18th, 2022.
Once Twice Melody, the first album produced entirely by Beach House, was recorded at Pachyderm studio in Cannon Falls, MN, United Studio in Los Angeles, CA, and Apple Orchard Studios in Baltimore, MD. For the first time, a live string ensemble was used, with arrangements by David Campbell. Once Twice Melody was mostly mixed by Alan Moulder but a few tracks were also mixed by Caesar Edmunds, Trevor Spencer, and Dave Fridmann.
Once Twice Melody features 18 tracks, and in the lead up to the physical release, will be presented in 4 chapters with lyric animations for each song.
Chapter 1 (November 10th, 2021) 1. Once Twice Melody 2. Superstar 3. Pink Funeral 4. Through Me
Chapter 2 (December 8th, 2021) 5. Runaway 6. ESP 7. New Romance 8. Over and Over
Chapter 3 (January 19th, 2022 - TODAY) 9. Sunset 10. Only You Know 11. Another Go Around 12. Masquerade 13. Illusion of Forever
Chapter 4 (full album release, February 18th, 2022) 14. Finale 15. The Bells 16. Hurts to Love 17. Many Nights 18. Modern Love Stories
Beach House previously announced headlining tour dates in support of Once Twice Melody, begin on February 18th, 2022 (see also November 9th, 2021 announcement). For more information on tickets, please visit beachhousebaltimore.com/tour.
Earlier this month, Beach House’s “Space Song,” from their 2015 release Depression Cherry wascertified platinum by the RIAA.
What people are saying about Once Twice Melody: “Chapter One captured that storybook quality with sweeping ballads fit for a baroque fairytale, each guided by Victoria Legrand’s typically enchanting vocals.” - The AV Club
“…Their most cinematic record yet. Working with a live string ensemble for the first time, they summon a sound more surrealistic than anything on 2018’s 7, bringing to mind 1960s psychedelia, Stereolab, and Broadcast’s ‘Come On Let’s Go’.” - Pitchfork
“Beach House’s music contains many gifts, but it’s the group’s ability to magnify life’s small dramas into sky-sized emotions that glitters (“Superstar”).” - New York Times
“All of them are amazing. All of them have their proponents. But “Superstar,” while perhaps not the most novel of the bunch, is the one that gave me the spine-chilling sensation of listening to a bona fide Beach House classic for the first time.” (“Song of the Week”) - Stereogum
“Things begin with the stunning title track that mixes low-fi electronics with baroque touches and a stirring string section. You can hear echoes of Broadcast, Stereolab and Spacemen 3 (whose Sonic Boom produced their last album, 7). The hand-drawn animated lyric video, directed by Annapurna Kumar, is great too. From there, it’s the pulsing, kaleidoscopic ‘Superstar’ (video by Nicholas Law), the neon dread of ‘Pink Funeral’ (full of strings right out of a horror film and a video by Scott Kiernan), and the melting arpeggiations of ‘Through Me’ (with a video by San Charoenchai). The visuals for all four songs are fantastic, very different, but majorly psychedelic.” - Brooklyn Vegan
“‘Over and Over’ shimmers, shines and ultimately uplifts for more than seven minutes. Throughout the mesmerizing track, vocalist Victoria Legrand beguiles alongside enveloping synths.” - Cool Hunting
“Beach House has perfected the “escapist” song, which knocks you into dizziness and elation, heightened by those rotating, shimmering synths… it may also have the power to temporarily cure you of seasonal depression. ‘Over and Over,” from the Baltimore’s pair’s new album, Once Twice Melody, is made for those few minutes between sunset and night — when purplish light extinguishes and noses turn red from the cold.” - NPR Music
