Marika Hackman unveils the video for latest single “the one,” directed by Louis Bhose (Michael Kiwanuka, Lewis Capaldi, Loyle Carner). “the one” is the second single from Marika’s forthcoming third album Any Human Friend, out August 9th from Sub Pop in North and South America and AMF Records for the rest of the world.
Marika says of “the one” it “is probably the poppiest song I’ve ever written. I loved the idea of inhabiting this ridiculous arrogant rock star character who has totally fucked their career by writing too many sad songs.” The video for “the one” sees Marika’s rock star alter-ego come to life within a photocopier. By the end of the video, Marika is repulsed by the augmented reality she has created, she takes a baseball bat to it and destroys it forever.
Director Louis Bhose reflects on the process of the video’s conception:
Marika: “I want to do a performance vid in a photocopier, where the imagined rockstar in me performs with gusto as the mediocre, let-down version of me watches.” Hack Video Director: “Say no more.”
Displaying an unapologetic attitude and a more liberated sound than ever before, “the one” has been co-produced by David Wrench (Frank Ocean, The xx, Let’s Eat Grandma) and Marika herself. “the one” shows why Marika is fast turning herself into one of the most exciting songwriters of her time. Layered synthesizers make this the album’s most unexpected musical turn, alongside Marika’s signature new wave guitar fretwork and Blondie style delivery, she’s never sounded as widescreen.
Marika Hackman Tour Dates
Having recently teased new music at the BBC 6 Music Festival, The Great Escape, All Points East, and Field Day, Marika is gearing up for an exciting year of touring. Tickets for headline tour dates available from marikahackman.com.
Aug.15 - Beacon Breacons, UK - Green Man Festival Sep. 21 - Bristol, UK - Thekla Sep. 23 - Glasgow, UK - Oran Mor Sep. 24 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell Social Club Sep. 25 - Manchester, UK - Band On The Wall Sep. 26 - London, UK - Islington Assembly Hall Oct. 11 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl Oct. 12 - Durham, NC - The Pinhook Oct. 13 - Washington, DC - U Street Music Hall Oct. 14 - Philadelphia, PA - Boot & Saddle Oct. 15 - Brooklyn, NY - Elsewhere Oct. 18 - Allston, MA - Great Scott Oct. 19 - Portland, ME - Port City Music Hall Oct. 20 - Montréal, QC - Bar Le ‘Ritz’ P.D.B. Oct. 21 - Toronto, ON- The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern Oct. 23 - Columbus, OH - Ace of Cups Oct. 24 - Ann Arbor, MI - Blind Pig Oct. 25 - Chicago, IL- Sleeping Village Oct. 26 - Milwaukee, WI - Back Room at Colectivo Coffee Oct. 28 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th St. Entry Nov. 01 - Seattle, WA - Neumos Nov. 04 - Oakland, CA - Starline Social Club Nov. 06 - West Hollywood, CA - The Roxy Theatre
Any Human Friend
Any Human Friendwas co-produced by David Wrench (Frank Ocean, The xx, Let’s Eat Grandma) and Marika herself, and shows off a sharper and more liberated sound than ever before. Now available for preorder from Sub Pop: LP preorders through megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers in North America will receive the limited Loser edition on Salmon-colored vinyl (while supplies last). There will also be a new t-shirt design available.
Preservation Hall Jazz Band has announced the release of their new
album A Tuba To Cuba, the
soundtrack to the critically acclaimed documentary directed by T.G. Herrington and Danny Clinch, out June 28, 2019 via Sub Pop. Today,
they have released the track “Keep Your
Head Up” from the album. Listen and share “Keep Your Head Up” here and
pre-order A Tuba to Cubahere.
“We are so proud and honored to share a project
we’ve poured so much of ourselves into,” says Ben
Jaffe. “The impact visiting Cuba had on us will live with us both
individually and as a band forever. We’re still absorbing everything we
experienced.”
“We went to Cuba in prayer position,” says Preservation Hall band
leader and bass player Ben Jaffe when he speaks of the pilgrimage he and the
group took to Cuba in December 2015. “We went to receive an offer at the same
time. We had never experienced a moment like this, it felt as though all roads
were intersecting at once.” The critically acclaimed 2019 documentary ATuba
to Cuba documented the band’s journey as they explored the links that
connect New Orleans and Cuba so indelibly – their shared, tragic history as
destinations where enslaved Africans struggled to simply survive, and their
current status as places where the cultural inheritance from those ancestors is
kept alive in both song and deed – but that was only half the story. This
collection of songs, a musical account of a
generations-in-the-making reunion of musical
families separated by time, politics, and distance, tells the other
half.
When
asked to describe the collection of songs assembled on Tuba to Cuba, Jaffe sums it up by saying,
“It’s like listening to the radio.” And yes, ATuba to Cuba actually feels less like
an ordinary soundtrack and more like a living document, a recording of a
broadcast that’s been waiting to exist, a modern version of the static-y radio
signals that were broadcast between America to the Caribbean in the early and
mid-20th century, sending the sounds of jazz and mambo and R&B and more
back and forth across the vast divides of water and culture and politics. It’s
a story, this album, and the tale being told mirrors the band’s experience.
The resulting
collection of songs is what Jaffe describes
as “a beautiful conversation.” The music of ATuba to Cuba is an ecstatic expression of that ongoing conversation, a
restless and lush trip up and down strange FM wavelengths bridging thousands of
miles and hundreds of years, where all involved are
talking with each other and over each other in excitement, charged with the
thrill of recognition of the evidence of their shared familial roots, an
undeniable kinship rooted in bloodlines, rhythm, and melody.
A Tuba To Cuba Tracklisting:
1. Yesteryear 2. Tumba 3. I Am 4. Descarga del Son 5. Keep Your Head Up 6. Corazon 7. Elegguà 8. Kreyol 9. El Manicero 10. Solitude 11. Las Palomas 12. Malecón
[Photo credit: Josh Goleman]
Preservation Hall Jazz Band Tour Dates:
Jul. 05 - Elkhorn, WI - Alpine Valley Music
Theatre*
Jul. 06 - Elkhorn, WI - Alpine Valley
Music Theatre*
Jul. 28 - Newport, RI - Newport Folk Festival
Aug. 02 - Happy Valley, OR - Pickathon
Aug. 03 - Happy Valley, OR - Pickathon
Aug. 05 - Folsom, CA - Harris Center For The
Arts
Aug. 06 - Folsom, CA - Harris Center For The
Arts
Aug. 08 - San Francisco, CA - SFJAZZ
Aug. 09 - San Francisco, CA - SFJAZZ
Aug. 10 - San Francisco, CA - SFJAZZ (7:00PM)
Aug. 10 - San Francisco, CA - SFJAZZ (9:30PM)
Aug. 11 - San Francisco, CA - SF Jazz Center -
Miner Auditorium
Aug. 15 - Philadelphia, PA - Old Pool Farm
Aug. 16 - Philadelphia, PA - Old Pool Farm
Aug. 17 - Philadelphia, PA - Old Pool Farm
Aug. 18 - Philadelphia, PA - Old Pool Farm
Aug. 24 - Arrington, VA - Lockn’ Music
Festival
Sep. 20 - Louisville, KY - Bourbon & Beyond
Festival
Sep. 21 - Franklin, TN - Pilgrimage Music
Festival
Sep. 22 - Franklin, TN - Pilgrimage Music
Festival
Oct 22 - Ridgefield, CT - The Ridgefield
Playhouse
Oct 23 - Red Bank, NJ - Count Basie Theatre
Oct 24 - New York, NY - Town Hall Theatre
Oct 25 - Boston, MA - Berklee Performance Center
Oct 26 - Portsmouth, NH - The Music Hall
Oct 28 - Montreal, QC - Place des Arts - Theatre
Oct 29 - Toronto, ON - Roy Thomson Hall
Oct 30 - Pittsburgh, PA - Byham Theatre
Nov 01 - Kent, OH - The Kent Stage
Nov 02 - Goshen, IN - Goshen College Music
Center
Nov 04 - Chicago, IL - Thalia Hall
Nov 05 - Saint Paul, MN - Fitzgerald Theatre
Nov 07 - Denver, CO - Paramount Theatre
Nov 09 - Phoenix, AZ - Music Theater at the
Musical Instrument Museum
Nov 11 - Livermore, CA - Livermore Valley
Performing Arts Center
Nov 13 - Chico, CA - California State University
Chico - Laxson Auditorium
Nov 15 - Santa Rosa, CA - Luther Burbank Center
for the Arts
Nov 16 - Arcata, CA - John Van Duzer Theatre
Nov 17 - Portland, OR - Revolution Hall
Nov 18 - Seattle, WA - Benaroya Hall – Taper
Auditorium
Nov 20 - Santa Cruz, CA - Rio Theatre
Nov 21 - Santa Barbara, CA - UCSB Campbell Hall
Nov 22 - San Diego, CA - Wonderfront Music
Festival
Nov 23 - Cerritos, CA - Cerritos Center for the
Performing Arts
Nov. 29 - Baltimore, MD - Joseph Meyerhoff
Symphony Hall
Nov. 30 - Baltimore, MD - Joseph Meyerhoff
Symphony Hall
Dec. 01 - Baltimore, MD - Joseph Meyerhoff
Symphony Hall
Craft had this to say of the visual, “I can’t dance and my fiancée Lydia isn’t the biggest fan of it either…we’d actually never danced together before the shoot. We wanted to have fun and aim for a Pulp Fiction vibe. So, I just slicked back the mop, cranked Spirit in the Sky over the bar speakers, and we went for it.”
Kyle Craft and Showboat Honey Tour Dates + Ticket Links
Kyle Craft & Showboat Honey’s previously announced headlining dates for 2019 in support of the album begin July 11th in Portland at Mississippi Studios and currently end on August 24th in San Francisco at Cafe Du Nord.
Jul. 11 - Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios Jul. 13 - Seattle, WA - Ballard Seafood Fest Jul. 14 - Spokane, WA - The Bartlett Jul. 15 - Billings, MT - Pub Station Taproom Jul. 17 - St. Paul, MN - Turf Club Jul. 18 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle Jul. 19 - Louisville, KY - Jimmy Can’t Dance Jul. 20 - Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop Jul. 22 - Toronto, ON - Horseshoe Tavern Jul. 23 - Northampton, MA - Iron Horse Jul. 24 - Allston, MA - Great Scott Jul. 26 - Newport, RI - Newport Folk (Museum Stage) Jul. 30 - Woodstock, NY - Colony Aug. 01 - Brooklyn, NY - Baby’s All Right Aug. 02 - Philadelphia, PA - Boot & Saddle Aug. 04 - Washington, DC - Pearl Street Warehouse Aug. 05 - Carrboro, NC - Cat’s Cradle Aug. 06 - Athens, GA - Georgia Theater Rooftop Aug. 07 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl Aug. 08 - Birmingham, AL - Saturn Aug. 09 - Nashville, TN - The Basement Aug. 10 - Oxford, MS - Proud Larry’s Aug. 11 - New Orleans, LA - One Eyed Jacks Aug. 14 - Shreveport, LA - Minicine Aug. 15 - Dallas, TX - Three Links Aug. 16 - Austin, TX - The Mohawk Aug. 18 - Phoenix, AZ - The Valley Bar Aug. 19 - Tucson, AZ - 191 Toole Aug. 22 - San Diego, CA - Soda Bar Aug. 23 - Los Angeles, CA - The Moroccan Aug. 24 - San Francisco, CA - Cafe Du Nord
Showboat Honey was recorded and produced by Kyle Craft, Kevin Clark, and Billy Slater at their own Moonbase Studios in Portland over 2018. The album was mixed by Trevor Spencer and mastered by April Golden at Golden Mastering.
Showboat Honey is now available for preorder through Sub Pop Mega Mart. Preorders of the LP through megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers in North America, the UK and Europe will receive the limited Loser edition on a clear blue translucent mix with spots red hi-melt (while supplies last). There will also be a new T-shirt design available.
On September 6th, Sub Pop will release Frankie Cosmos’ fourth studio album, Close It Quietly. This album is a manifestation of the band’s collaborative spirit: Greta Kline and longtime bandmates Lauren Martin (synth), Luke Pyenson (drums), and Alex Bailey (bass) luxuriated in studio time with Gabe Wax, who engineered and co-produced the record with the band.
Recording close to home — at Brooklyn’s Figure 8 Studios— grounded the band, and their process was enriched by working closely with Wax, whose intuition and attention to detail made the familiar unfamiliar and allowed the band to reshape their own contexts. Close It Quietly is a continual reframing of the known, taking the band’s trademark micro-universe and upending it, spilling outwards into a swirl of referentiality that’s a marked departure from earlier releases, imagining and reimagining motifs and sounds throughout the album.
The synergy of its collaboration is clear upon listening to the debut offering “Windows.” “This song takes place during the waiting period of healing, not knowing how to proceed or how to find the path to forgiveness. The inner versus the outer- learning to see yourself as part of the whole. For me the lyrics cover some of the slow movements of relationships, the shifts that occur in ways of thinking over time,” says frontperson Greta Kline. You can watch the new video for “Windows” which was directed by Eliza Doyle and Greta Kline above, and also here.
Frankie Cosmos has announced a World Tour, splitting these shows into three legs. The first leg of dates will begin on September 18 in Boston, MA, and end on Sep. 29 in their hometown of New York City. They will then head overseas beginning on Oct. 8th in Munich, Germany with shows in Prague, Amsterdam, and Paris, ending on Oct. 22nd in London. The final leg of dates will run from Oct 31st - Nov 16th with shows in Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Los Angeles, and Berkeley. See below for a full list of shows.
Close It Quietly is now available for preorder from Sub Pop. LP preorders of the album through megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers in North America, UK, and Europe will receive the limited Loser edition on blue pearlescent (North America) and opaque yellow (UK/EU) while supplies last.
Close It Quietly Tracklisting:
1. Moonsea 2. Cosmic Shop 3. 41st 4. So Blue 5. A Joke 6. Rings (On A Tree) 7. Actin’ Weird 8. Windows 9. Never Would 10. Self-destruct 11. Wannago 12. I’m It 13. Trunk Of A Tree 14. Last Season’s Textures 15. Even Though I Knew 16. UFO 17. Marbles 18. Did You Find 19. A Hit 20. With Great Purpose 21. This Swirling
Frankie Cosmos Tour dates: Sep. 18 - Boston, MA - Royale Sep. 19 - Burlington, VT - Arts Riot Sep. 20 - Montreal, QC - L’Astral Sep. 21 - Toronto, ON - Horseshoe Tavern Sep. 22 - Detroit, MI - Deluxx Fluxx Sep. 23 - Chicago, IL - Thalia Hall Sep. 25 - Columbus, OH - Ace of Cups Sep. 26 - Pittsburgh, PA - Spirit Hall Sep. 27 - Washington, DC - Black Cat Sep. 28 - Philadelphia, PA - PhilaMOCA Sep. 29 - New York, NY - Webster Hall Oct. 08 - Munich, DE - Heppel & Ettlich Oct. 09 - Vienna, AT - Chelsea Oct. 10 - Prague, CZ - Underdogs’ Oct. 11 - Cologne, DE - MTC Oct. 12 - Luxembourg, LU - Rotondes Oct. 13 - Amsterdam, NL - Bitterzoet Oct. 14 - Paris, FR - Badaboum Oct. 15 - Reims, FR - La Cartonnerie Oct. 16 - Brighton, UK - The Haunt Oct. 17 - Bristol, UK - Exchange Oct. 19 - Leeds, UK - Belgrave Music Hall Oct. 20 - Sheffield, UK - Delicious Clam Oct. 21 - Manchester, UK - Night & Day Oct. 22 - London, UK - Islington Assembly Hall Oct. 31 - Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom Nov. 01 - Tacoma, WA - Alma Mater Nov. 02 - Vancouver, BC - Hollywood Theatre Nov. 03 - Seattle, WA - Laser Dome @ Pacific Science Center Nov. 07 - Denver, CO - Bluebird Theater Nov. 08 - Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge Nov. 10 - Tucson, AZ - Hotel Congress Nov. 12 - Anaheim, CA - Chain Reaction Nov. 13 - San Diego, CA - Che Cafe Nov. 15 - Los Angeles, CA - 1720 Nov. 16 - Berkeley, CA - The UC Theatre
[Photo credit: Jackie Lee Young]
More About Frankie Cosmos and ‘Close it Quietly’:
Close It Quietly is a continual reframing of the known. It’s like giving yourself a haircut or rearranging your room. You know your hair. You know your room. Here’s the same hair, the same room, seen again as something new. Close It Quietly takes the trademark Frankie Cosmos micro-universe and upends it, spilling outwards into a swirl of referentiality that’s a marked departure from earlier releases, imagining and reimagining motifs and sounds throughout the album. FC’s fourth studio release is a manifestation of the band’s collaborative spirit: Greta Kline and longtime bandmates Lauren Martin (synth), Luke Pyenson (drums), and Alex Bailey (bass) luxuriated in studio time with Gabe Wax, who engineered and co-produced the record with the band.
Recording close to home— at Brooklyn’s Figure 8 Studios— grounded the band, and their process was enriched by working closely with Wax, whose intuition and attention to detail made the familiar unfamiliar and allowed the band to reshape their own contexts. On opener “Moonsea,” an unaccompanied Greta begins, “The world is crumbling and I don’t have much to say.” Take that as a wink and a metonym for the whole album, as her signature vocals are joined by Alex’s ascending bassline and Lauren’s eddying synths, invoking a loungey take on Broadcast or Stereolab’s space-disco experimental pop. There’s much more than “not much” to say here, and it’s augmented and expanded by experimentation with synth patches, textures, and other recording nuances courtesy of Wax.
As the lineup has solidified into the most permanent expression of full-band Frankie Cosmos, the bandmates have felt more comfortable deviating from their default instruments and contributing bigger-picture ideas to continue pushing the sound forward. The synergy of its creation is clear upon listening: the multiple hands dipping and re-dipping into each song form a multifaceted whole. The band’s closeness and aesthetic consistency freed its members to take more musically-formal risks, notes Luke: “Everything will sound like Frankie Cosmos because Greta has such a distinct voice (literally and figuratively). We have so much latitude to experiment with the instrumental music, and this time around we really took advantage of that.”
The album forms its own vortex of reinvention that’s embodied through both the tracks themselves and the recording and arranging processes. “A Joke” curls in on itself, in word and indeed, a series of undercuts defining negative space: “It’s just a joke I wasn’t trying to tell;” “It wasn’t really a game;” “I do not know what I am for/I wasn’t really keeping score.” Inverting technology’s human mimicry, Luke impersonates a drum machine until the song’s end. “A Joke’s” tricks scratch at something bigger, a small song embodying the laughability of attempting to neatly organize or adhere to any particular role.
“Rings of a Tree” frees itself from its original context: released earlier this year on Greta’s solo piano album Haunted Items, she didn’t initially anticipate a major deviation; then, Luke says, “Lauren and I had the same arrangement idea without talking about it. Like, ‘let’s make this song funky. Let’s channel Orange Juice.’ We texted Greta and Alex before practice and Alex came in with a new guitar part that perfectly captured what Lauren and I heard in our heads.”
“I’m just fucking glad for my bubble/despite how often it is penetrated by evil” Greta sings on “Last Season’s Textures,” taking to task the accusation that young people cloister themselves in complacency: she’s quick to point to, thank, and feel suspicious of that sphere all at once. The song explores the feeling of safety in her realm; reasonable despair re: reality (“the news is excruciating”); and a quick admission that darkness isn’t something a liberal-minded social network can block out. Kline notes how the song is “partly about misogyny and internalized misogyny–moments where I’ve felt betrayed by what is meant to be a safe space.”
Without losing any intimacy of prior albums, Close it Quietly is different, is outer. The album functions as a benign doppelganger, a shadow self of past releases; where other Frankie Cosmos records shine brightest looking inward, Close it Quietly refracts the self into the world, and vice versa, miraculously echoing Thoreau’s assertion that “when I reflect, I find that there is other than me.”
Reflection–and refraction–isn’t tidy. “Flowers don’t grow/in an organized way/why should I?” Greta sings on “A Joke.” Growth isn’t linear. Change happens in circles. While recording the album, Alex says, “I closed my eyes a lot.” Stand in the sun, listen to Close it Quietly, and do the same.
Sub Pop has signed Cartel Madras, a hip-hop duo who are spearheading a new genre of trap music, Goonda rap. Madras-born sisters Eboshi and Contra are known for their confrontational, high-energy and sexually commanding style of rap; this rising duo flaunts their South Indian identity with authority and expresses their gender and sexuality with a candor that is imperative to why and how Cartel Madras exists. We will release new music from the group in the near future, but for now check out the official video for “Pork and Leek”from TRAPISTAN, their debut mixtape from 2018.
Ishmael Butler, who signed the group had this to say, “The energy and passion they bring combined with their superior rapping skills makes the Cartel a must hear and see. Excitement is the main ingredient of their magic. On record and on stage they glow under the spotlight. They’re electric, totally tapped into the current. And c’mon two fly sisters spitting heat? Real rare…it’s too good.”
Cartel Madras has a few Canadian festival shows on the horizon, including Calgary’s Sled Island on June 21st, Hillside Festival in Guelph, Ontario on July 12th, Ottawa’s Bluesfest on July 13th, and Up Here Fest in Sudbury, Ontario on August 17th.
More on Cartel Madras: Owning sexuality, racial identity, and gender identity are recurring themes in Cartel Madras’ music. Though these themes are already present in hip hop, Cartel pushes them to even more subversive places by applying them to immigrant women. In this way, Eboshi and Contra created Cartel Madras as a mission to authentically represent the underrepresented.
Their live performances—which boldly combine elements of the underground trap, queer, and punk scenes—have been compared to full-blown riots. After just one year, word of mouth grew so profoundly that Cartel Madras had amassed a loyal organic following and media coverage.
Their debut mixtape, TRAPISTAN, captures this live energy. Contra and Eboshi enter the world of trap loudly, abrasively, unapologetically—signaling to their growing fan base that they intend to bring something entirely new to hip hop. Over booming beats, the sisters’ rap with ease through a new genre that brings together trap, house, and gangster rap with the narratives of being Tamil born, immigrant raised, and sexually empowered as women of color and women who are queer.
Cartel Madras TRAPISTAN
Tracklisting: 1. Red Notice 2. Housey (Thirsti Thots 2 Tha Front) 3. Eric Andre (Slick Rick James) 4. Pork and Leek 5. Kuthu Pattu
