Watch Kyle Craft & Showboat Honey’s official video for lead single “2 Ugly 4 NY” from Showboat Honey, their forthcoming new album, available worldwide July 12th, 2019 from Sub Pop. The video is directed by Eleanor Petry, and stars bandleader Craft as Hobo Grimm, a skeleton-faced busker. He says of the video, “Eleanor and I were aiming to snag that “day in the life” feel, following old Hobo Grim around downtown tryin’ to make the illusive busker’s dollar and then heading off into the night to blow it.”
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 (Father John Misty) 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.
Showboat Honey Tracklisting:
1. Broken Mirror Pose 2. O! Lucky Hand 3. 2 Ugly 4 NY 4. Blackhole/Joyride 5. Bed of Needles #2 6. Deathwish Blue 7. Blood in the Water 8. Buzzkill Caterwaul 9. Sunday Driver 10. Johnny (Free & Easy) 11. She’s Lily Riptide
[Photo Credit: Peter Karaviaw]
About Showboat Honey: There is this curious equilibrium to existence: In order to create balance, the universe must giveth, and the universe must taketh. Kyle Craft, along with his now solidified backing band dubbed Showboat Honey, know this all too well. And this is why their self-titled album, the contemplative yet restless Showboat Honey (Sub Pop Records, July 12th, 2019) reflects that sturm und drang. “This is basically an album centered around bad luck and good fortune hitting at the same time,” Craft explains “Then, out of nowhere, I find love. Everything went to shit except that. I guess that’s how life works.”
No track better captures this duality than the sweeping “Sunday Driver,” about sticking to your guns, despite a universe of blowback. “At this point, you get baptized by certain fires and start to walk with the dead a little bit, like nothing can harm you anymore,” says the Portland-based musician. “That’s what self-love sounds like to me, as aggressive as that sounds.”
The sticky-sweet title of the album is lifted from the brightly choral “Buzzkill Caterwaul” (“Once you were the showboat honey/ But your ship sailed out”). “I wanted to make something that sounded like a raucous collision of Leon Russell and Patti Smith,” he says, “But ‘Buzzkill Caterwaul’ was the only tune that ended up showcasing that vision.”
Though aesthetics veer from song to song, Showboat Honey’s steadfast formula remains the same. Drummer Haven Mutlz holds down the machine with a ’60s/’70s fast-molasses groove that locks in with the slinky rolling bass of Billy Slater. When Kevin Clark isn’t bouncing across the piano, his mellotron strings swell in and out of frame. Jack of all trades Ben Steinmetz’s organ parts well up from the deep of the songs, while lead guitarist Jeremy Kale’s solos rip through them like electricity. On top of it all, sits the tongue-in-cheek phantasmagoria created by Craft’s lyrics.
Lyrically, perspectives shift to imbue life into a cast of intriguing, mysterious characters, à la Bob Dylan. (“There is not a single thing in my life that has affected me more than the first time I heard Dylan,” says Craft. “It immediately changed my life.”) “Johnny (Free & Easy)” is seemingly about a date gone awry at a swinger’s party in the Hollywood Hills. And the twangy pop of “O! Lucky Hand” appears to shadow a poor sod desperate to elude a hex. Its antidote is the stunning, cinematic “Deathwish Blue,” which sounds like a deep cut from the book of John Lennon, about the lovesick salvation found in his bride to be, Lydia.
If that’s not head-trippy enough, the carefree sing-along “2 Ugly 4 NY” features a lyrical reference to a previous incarnation of Craft. Its lyrics—“Don’t wanna see Death strum for cash downtown/ Or the look on his face when the change hits the case on the ground”—call out his early days in Portland when he went by the moniker of Hobo Grim. Busking downtown, he’d cover country tunes while dressed as the Grim Reaper so as to conceal his true identity.
Craft started writing about as soon as he could play the guitar at the age of 15. He grew up in the isolated Mississippi River town of Vidalia, Louisiana where his chops weren’t honed in a woodshed, but rather an old, dingy meat freezer that was out of commission. When asked about the first song he’d ever written, he laughs, saying it was an “angsty-rock tune” and “a rare bird of how bad a song could be.”
After years of touring, two LPs with Sub Pop Records, and solidifying the band, he’s since grown into a prodigious songwriter, to say the least. The band recorded Showboat Honey—co-produced by Craft, Clark, and Slater—at their own Moonbase Studios in Portland over 2018. “We approached this record differently for sure,” Craft says. “I’d make a demo, and after putting the songs together, shoot it to the band for ideas.” Tracks such as “Broken Mirror Pose” ended up being highly collaborative, while others settled into Craft’s original vision. “Deathwish Blue,” for instance, was tracked in a similar fashion to his solo debut, Dolls of Highland, with Craft tracking every instrument by himself.
Kyle and the members of Showboat Honey worked at such a feverish wine-fueled pace that they actually ended up with two completely different albums. But at the end of the day, they decided to combine the two into what is now Showboat Honey,a moonstruck rock ’n’ roll record teeming with reckless abandon.
“We thought we had the album done at one point. But at the last minute, I was like, ‘Shit, this isn’t the album. This isn’t it,’” Kyle says. “It was just a gut feeling. I’m glad for that because I feel like I ended up writing some of the best songs I’ve ever written.”
Seattle band Tacocat are set to release This Mess Is a Place, their new full-length album on LP/CD/Digital and Cassette on Friday, May 3rd. The sparkly new record is their first for Sub Pop, and heralds a more pop-driven and ebullient direction in their sound. Starting today, you can stream the album in its entirety via NPR Music’s First Listen right over here.
Tacocat will be touring the US this summer. See below for a full list of performances.
May 09 - St. Paul, MN - Turf Club May 10 - Milwaukee, WI - Cactus Club May 11 - Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall May 12 - Grand Rapids, MI - The Pyramid Scheme May 13 - Pittsburgh, PA - Club Cafe May 15 - Cambridge, MA - The Sinclair May 17 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg May 18 - Philadelphia, PA - Boot & Saddle May 19 - Washington, D.C. - U Street Music Hall May 21 - Durham, NC - The Pinhook May 22 - Atlanta, GA - The Drunken Unicorn May 23 - Nashville, TN - The High Watt May 24 - St. Louis, MO - Off Broadway May 25 - Kansas City, MO - The Record Bar Jun. 08 - Seattle, WA - The Showbox at the Market Jun. 12 - Spokane, WA - The Bartlett Jun. 13 - Boise, ID - Neurolux Jun. 14 - Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court Jun. 15 - Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge Jun. 17 - Dallas, TX - Club Dada Jun. 18 - Houston, TX - White Oak Music Hall Jun. 19 - Austin, TX - Barracuda Jun. 21 - Sante Fe, NM - Meow Wolf Jun. 22 - Phoenix, AZ - Valley Bar Jun. 23 - San Diego, CA - The Casbah Jun. 25 - Los Angeles, CA - The Bootleg Theater Jun. 26 - San Francisco, CA - The Chapel Jun. 28 - Portland, OR - Aladdin Theater
Rock provocateur Marika Hackman returns with melodic earworm “i’m not where you are” which shows off a sharper and more liberated sound than ever before. The track was co-produced by Marika and David Wrench (Frank Ocean, The xx, Let’s Eat Grandma), and is available now digitally from Sub Pop (in North and South America) and AMF Records (for the rest of the world)
“i’m not where you are” “is about breaking up with people, or self-sabotaging relationships” Marika explains. “That feeling of not trusting one’s emotions because you can’t seem to get to the same place as the other person. On the surface, it seems like an arrogant everybody falls in love with me” kind of song but its actually incredibly lonely, introspective and self-deprecating”
“i’m not where you are” fits into a wider narrative, in which the process of writing was cathartic and - as the best songwriters do - she has strengthened her own voice through the process, exploring herself and emerging with a widescreen, heavy-hitting new sound.
Marika has deployed synthesizers that recall the off-kilter, oddball hits of OMD or New Order and places them at the heart of “i’m not where you are.” For all the urgency of the backing music, Marika’s natural delivery and sensuous tone offers a dreamlike quality to the proceedings and allows her to look within to find answers that make sense outside.
Hackman is a Rid of Me-era PJ Harvey for the inclusive generation: unbounded by musical genre, a preternatural lyricist and tunesmith who isn’t afraid to go there. Hackman’s 2015 debut, We Slept at Last, was heralded for being nuanced and atmospheric. She really found her footing with her last release, I’m Not Your Man—which earned raves from The Guardian, Stereogum, and Pitchfork—and its sybaritic, swaggering hit “Boyfriend,” which boasts of seducing away a straight guy’s girlfriend. Marika’s new sound sees her dive into herself, peeling back the skin further and further, exposing herself in a big way, creating something for people to react to.
Having recently teased new music at theBBC 6 Music festival, Marika is gearing up to an exciting year of touring. More news to come.
[Photo Credit: Joost Vandebrug]
What people have said about Marika Hackman: “Her tactile lyrics keep the songs melodically strong and full of surprises…As a writer, Hackman may owe a bit to PJ Harvey, but I’m Not Your Man is the proper arrival of a bold young British force.” [I’m Not Your Man] - Pitchfork
“Hackman’s greatest weapon is her words, and she uses her dark wit to lure you in while conveying strong messages about her life and society.” [I’m Not Your Man] - Stereogum
“A bolder, more upfront record than her first, no longer couching her sexuality in metaphors about nature…” [I’m Not Your Man] - NPR Music
“Marika Hackman’s latest evolution is a triumph that finds equilibrium amid both wit and heart.” [I’m Not Your Man] - All Music
In a wildly entertaining interview, filled with exciting Marc-on-Mark action, Mudhoney’s Mark Arm appeared on WTF with Marc Maron on Thursday, April 18th, 2019 (aka TODAY!). You can (and should) listen here.
Plus, REJOICE, for there are many upcoming Mudhoney shows in North America throughout the remainder of the year!
May 04 - Seattle, WA - KEXP Gathering Space (Sonic Reducer’s 15th Anniversary Celebration) @ May 10 - Walla Walla, WA - The Dacres # May 11 - Spokane, WA - Lucky You Lounge # May 24 - Green Bay, WI - Green Bay Distillery May 25 - Minneapolis, MN - Fine Line Music Cafe * May 26 - Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall (SOLD OUT) ? Jun. 14 - Tacoma, WA - The Elks Temple & Jun. 15 - Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom Sep. 27 - Dana Point, CA - Ohana Festival Sep. 28 - Dana Point, CA - Ohana Festival Sep. 29 - Dana Point, CA - Ohana Festival Oct. 04 - Jersey City, NJ - White Eagle Hall ^ Oct. 05 - Allston, MA - Brighton Music Hall % Oct. 06 - Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer % Oct. 07 - Richmond, VA - The Broadberry % Oct. 08 - Durham, NC - The Pinhook % Oct. 09 - Atlanta, GA - Terminal West % Oct. 10 - Asheville, NC - Grey Eagle Tavern & Music Hall % Oct. 11 - Knoxville, TN - The Concourse $ Oct.12 - Nashville, TN - The Basement East $ Oct.14 - St. Louis, MO - Off Broadway ! Oct.15 - Detroit, MI - El Club ! Oct.16 - Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop ! Oct.17 - Pittsburgh, PA - Mr. Smalls ! Oct.18 - Baltimore, MD - Baltimore Soundstage ! Oct.19 - Brooklyn, NY - Market Hotel !
@ w/ Control Test, Dark Smith # w/ The Derelicts * w/ METZ and Black-Eyed Snakes ? w/ METZ & w/ The Fucking Eagles, The Drove ^ w/ Shut Up % w/ Pissed Jeans $ w/ Pissed Jeans, Kings of the Fucking Sea ! w/ Kid Congo Powers + the Pink Monkey Birds
What people are saying about Mudhoney’s Digital Garbage: “Cometh the hour, cometh the band”- MOJO
“With Digital Garbage, Mudhoney have provided the noise-escape of the year. The war may never be won, but at least now we’ve got somewhere to hide when it all gets a bit much.” - Drowned in Sound
“The Seattle scuzz-punk pioneers deliver a grave diagnosis of a festering societal condition.” Pitchfork
“…raw and irreverent as ever.”- Uncut
“They simply sound like a better, defter, maybe even snottier version of their younger selves on their 10th album.”- Rolling Stone
Seattle band Tacocat are set to release This Mess Is a Place, their new full-length album on LP/CD/Digital and Cassette on Friday, May 3rd. The sparkly new album is their first for Sub Pop, and heralds a more pop-driven and ebullient direction in their sound. Today, Under the Radar premiered ”The Joke of Life,” the third and final pre-release single from the highly-anticipated record.
Of the track, lead singer Emily Nokes says, “I love how this song turned out. This is also one of my favorite concepts on the album — the joke is that the joke is already a joke. You know when something is so unbelievable, in a bad way, that it can’t even be satirized because irony falls short of the real thing? Like we’ve entered a twilight zone of perpetual horror and now we’re just… adapting to it. Because what else are you going to do?”
Advance review copies of This Mess Is a Place are available upon request. Pre-orders are available now from u.subpop.com/thismess.
Tacocat will be touring the US this summer. See below for a full list of performances. Tickets for all shows are on sale now and available here.
May 09 - St. Paul, MN - Turf Club May 10 - Milwaukee, WI - Cactus Club May 11 - Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall May 12 - Grand Rapids, MI - The Pyramid Scheme May 13 - Pittsburgh, PA - Club Cafe May 15 - Cambridge, MA - The Sinclair May 17 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg May 18 - Philadelphia, PA - Boot & Saddle May 19 - Washington, D.C. - U Street Music Hall May 21 - Durham, NC - The Pinhook May 22 - Atlanta, GA - The Drunken Unicorn May 23 - Nashville, TN - The High Watt May 24 - St. Louis, MO - Off Broadway May 25 - Kansas City, MO - The Record Bar Jun. 08 - Seattle, WA - The Showbox at the Market Jun. 12 - Spokane, WA - The Bartlett Jun. 13 - Boise, ID - Neurolux Jun. 14 - Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court Jun. 15 - Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge Jun. 17 - Dallas, TX - Club Dada Jun. 18 - Houston, TX - White Oak Music Hall Jun. 19 - Austin, TX - Barracuda Jun. 21 - Sante Fe, NM - Meow Wolf Jun. 22 - Phoenix, AZ - Valley Bar Jun. 23 - San Diego, CA - The Casbah Jun. 25 - Los Angeles, CA - The Bootleg Theater Jun. 26 - San Francisco, CA - The Chapel Jun. 28 - Portland, OR - Aladdin Theater
