La Luz - the band led by Shana Cleveland – has dropped a new single today titled “Poppies.” The baroque Sergeant Peppers-esque pop song has an air of dystopian surrealness that colors much of La Luz’s new material. The single comes on the heels of their recently announced new album, News of the Universe, out May 24. The LP marks their first for Sub Pop. Fans can pre-order the album HERE.
La Luz’s Shana Cleveland on “Poppies”
Poppies is about the surreal feeling of going through the horror and isolation of a cancer diagnosis and treatment and then suddenly being out in the bright world again, trying to make sense of it all, feeling like I’m walking through a waking dream, seeing the first wildflowers come out and feeling a similar sense of rebirth.
With a credo adapted from science fiction author Octavia E. Butler, an album title from a collection of metaphysical poetry, and an expansion in consciousness brought on by personal crisis, News of the Universe finds guitarist and songwriter Cleveland embracing a changing world with unconditional love. News of the Universe is also a record born of calamity, a work of dark, beautiful psychedelia reflecting Cleveland’s experience of having her world blown apart by a breast cancer diagnosis just two years after the birth of her son.
La Luz will be touring North America, Europe, and the UK in support of News of the Universe, and the first run of dates will kick off May 23 in Barcelona. The band’s first show stateside is on May 30 at The Crocodile in Seattle, WA for a Record Release Show. Their touring goes into full swing starting on September 26 for a show in Chicago, IL, stopping at Brooklyn’s Elsewhere on October 9, before concluding with a 2-night run at Lodge Room in Los Angeles, CA, on November 8 and 9. All shows are listed below.
Formed by Cleveland in 2012, La Luz is beloved for their ability to balance bedlam and bliss, each new record another fine-tuning of the band’s mix of swaggering riffs with angelic vocals borrowed from doo-wop and folk; a band so reliably great that it makes the huge step forward in confidence and sheer musicality that is News of the Universe all the more formidable. Cleveland, also a writer and painter, has developed into a truly original songwriter with her own canon of haunted psychedelia that, in recent years, has drawn upon the changing landscape around her rural California home for inspiration, notably on last year’s critically acclaimed solo release, Manzanita, a magical realist documentation of her pregnancy and early motherhood that appeared on many year-end lists.
Sonically, the record is all urgency. Songs trip over themselves as if trying to outrun the apocalypse. The powerful sense of openness that permeates News of the Universe is at least partially due to the fact that it is a record made entirely by women—from the performing, writing, and producing all the way through to the recording, engineering, and mastering. “There is something inherently and simultaneously sweet and brutal about womanhood,” says Cleveland. “That is something I hear on this record.”
Working with producer Maryam Qudus (Spacemoth), the all-female environment allowed Cleveland to feel safe tapping into difficult places and expressing hard emotions women are socialized to suppress. Unashamedly vulnerable, unabashedly feminine, and undeniably triumphant, News of the Universe is another knockout record from a band so reliably great that it has perhaps led people to overlook how pioneering La Luz really are: women of color in indie music forging their own path by following their own artistic star into galaxies beyond current musical trends, always led by an earnest belief in the cosmic power of love and a great riff. Never is that more true than on News of the Universe, which might be La Luz’s most brutal record to date but also their most blissful. After everything, how could it not?
La Luz Tour Dates
05/23 Barcelona, ES @ Sala Upload
05/24 Madrid, ES @ Tomavistas Festival
05/25 London, UK @ Wide Awake Festival
05/30 Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile (Record Release Show)
07/27 Portland, OR @ Project Pabst
08/30 Brighton, UK @ Brighton Psych Fest
08/31 Manchester, UK @ Manchester Psych Fest
09/01 Edinburgh, UK @ Edinburgh Psych Fest
09/03 Bristol, UK @ Strange Brew
09/05 Paris, FR @ Point Ephemere
09/06 Sart-Messire-Guillaume, BE @ SMG Music Fest
09/07 Asten-Heusden, NL @ Misty Fields Festival
09/08 Amsterdam, NL @ Indiestadt x Sugar Mountain @ Paradiso
09/10 Cologne, DE @ Bumann & SOHN
09/11 Hamburg, DE @ Prinzenbar
09/12 Berlin, DE @ Badehaus
09/13 Schorndorf, DE @ Manufaktur
09/14 Zürich, DE @ Bogen
09/26 Chicago, IL @ Subterranean
09/27 Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon
09/28 St. Paul, MM @ Turf Club
09/30 St. Louis, MO @ Blueberry Hill
10/01 Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar
10/02 Nashville, TN @ The End
10/03 Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade - Purgatory
10/04 Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall
10/05 Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall
10/06 Washington, DC @ The Atlantis
10/08 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
10/09 Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere - Hall
10/10 Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
10/11 Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz
10/12 Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
10/13 Ferndale, MI @ The Loving Touch
10/28 Denver, CO @ Marquis
10/30 Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
10/31 Boise, ID @ The Olympic
11/03 Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl
11/06 Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s
11/07 San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
11/08 Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
11/09 Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
News of the Universe is available to preorder now on CD/LP/DSPs from Sub Pop. The album can be pre-ordered in North America from megamart.subpop.com, select independent retailers, and the band’s website, and in Europe and the UK from independent retail stores, and Mega Mart 2 (the new, UK-based sibling site to the world-famous Sub Pop Mega Mart), with vinyl available on limited variants. All colored vinyl versions are available while stock lasts.
Shabazz Palaces takes a darkly aquatic dive in the official video for “Goat Me (feat. Cobra Coil)” from Exotic Birds of Prey, his new, seven-song mini-album for 2024, out now worldwide from Sub Pop.
Shabazz Palaces is masterminded by vocalist and producer Ismael Butler, whose unstinting drive to reimagine hip-hop – even as he enjoys his fifth decade on Earth – remains undimmed.
Exotic Birds of Prey furthers the modus operandi of its predecessor, Robed in Rareness – a respectful eye on the past, an embrace of an ever-evolving present, and its feet are firmly planted in the future. Where Robed… warped sounds like shoegaze and ambient music into the Shabazz Palaces multiverse, Exotic… cross-pollinates these elements with twisted electro and funk vibes.
This new endeavor features collaborations with the likes of Stas THEE Boss and Irene Barber (“Angela”), Lavarr the Starr (“Take Me To Your Leader”), Japreme Magnetic (“Myths of the Occult”), OC Notes (“Well Known Nobody”), the aforementioned Cobra Coil, and Purple Tape Nate (“Exotic Birds of Prey”).
Exotic Birds of Prey was produced by Shabazz Palaces, mixed by Erik Blood, and engineered by Ishmael Butler and Blood at Studio4 West in Venice, California, with mastering by Warren Defever at Third Man Mastering.
Next week, Shabazz Palaces will appear at My Morning Jacket’s “One Big Holiday” at Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya, April 4th-7th, 2024. Later that month, Shabazz Palaces’ European and UK dates in support of Robed in Rareness and Exotic Birds of Prey begin April 27th in Paris, France at Le Petit Bain and currently end May 22nd in Braga, PT at Gnration.
Sat. Apr. 27 - Paris, FR - Le Petit Bain
Tue. Apr. 30 - Lille, FR - Aeronef
Wed. May 01 - Brussels, BE - AB Club
Thu. May 02 - Ramsgate, UK - Music Hall
Fri. May 03 - Dublin, IE - Sugar Club
Sat. May 04 - Leeds, UK - Headrow House
Sun. May 05 - Manchester, UK - YES Pink Room
Mon. May 06 - Brighton, UK - Patterns
Tue. May 07 - London, UK - Village Underground
Thu. May 09 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso
Sat. May 11 - Copenhagen, DK - Huset
Sun. May 12 - Hamburg, DE - Turmzimmer
Mon. May 13 - Berlin, DE - Frannz Club
Tue. May 14 - Prague, CZ - Meet Factory
Thu. May 16 - Geneva, CH - L’Usine
Sun. May 19 - San Sebastian, ES - Dabadaba
Mon. May 20 - Madrid, ES - Cafe Berlin
Tue. May 21 - Lisbon, PT - B. Leza
Wed. May 22 - Braga, PT - Gnration
Exotic Birds of Prey and Robed in Rareness are now available on CD/LP from Sub Pop. LP orders for each release in North America from megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser Editions for Exotic Birds of Prey on Translucent White vinyl and Robed in Rareness on Translucent Ruby vinyl.
In the UK and Europe, LP orders from Mega Mart 2 (the new, UK-based sibling site to the world-famous Sub Pop Mega Mart) and independent retail stores will receive the Loser Editions for Exotic Birds of Prey on Cream White vinyl and Robed in Rareness on Red vinyl.
What people are saying about Shabazz Palaces:
“There’s a deeply inclusive feel to Butler’s latest project, with a series of guest vocalists who bring lyrical light to the mission. The warp-speed hi-hats and forbidding synths of ‘Exotic BOP’ prompt Purple Tape Nate to offer commentary about smartphones organizing human thoughts; Butler’s alias Lavarr The Starr glides through the unabashedly ‘80s electro workout ‘Take Me To Your Leader’; and Stas THEE Boss joins Irene Barber on the interstellar P-funk bass of ‘Angela.’” [Exotic Birds of Prey] - Bandcamp
“This group is inquisitive as ever….Founder Ishmael Butler, formerly of the jazz rap group Digable Planets, has always been trying to commune with the future…and some of these songs are in dialogue with his past, which can be just as thrilling.” [Exotic Birds of Prey] - NPR Music
“Shabazz Palaces remains in a universe of his own with Exotic Birds of Prey, his second mini album in five months, following October’s Robed In Rareness…Sometimes it feels more like experimental electronic music with some rapping than rap music with electronic production. Whatever you call it, it’s a total trip.”- Brooklyn Vegan
“Exotic Birds of Prey sounds like it’s broadcasting live from an unknown galaxy, giving us an idea of what music will sound like on other planets in the future while nodding knowingly to some of Earth’s most exciting sounds of the past.” - All Music
“Exotic Birds of Prey is an ambitious release even for an artist who has built a discography of mind-altering rhymes and face-melting instrumentals, in just seven songs Shabazz Palaces is able to fit entire character arcs and head-spinning sonic twists.” - GLIDE
“His eighth LP with Sub Pop, Exotic Birds of Prey conjures another heady brew of synth-soaked experimental rap that suffuses Sun Ra’s celestial reach with P-Funk’s acid-fried grit. Drenched in Afrofuturist psych, Butler’s spaced-out production explores the uncharted terrain of experimental hip-hop with a kaleidoscopic set of seven songs that viscously stick and gel to each other, enveloped in gelatinous bass, trippy beats, and omnipotent command.” - Still Listening
“Shabazz Palaces — Ishmael Butler from Digable Planets — sets up a sci-fi scenario in “Take Me to Your Leader”…He and a guest rapper, Lavarr the Starr, have to convince a powerful, mysterious queen that “our race deserves to survive.” Amid blipping electronics and slow-pulsing bass, with voices warped by echoes and effects, they set out a strategy of gifts, philosophizing, seduction and “a steady-bumping beat she can freak with.” [“Take Me To Your Leader”] - “The Playlist” - New York Times
“…a psychedelic six-minute synth-funk meditation. This kind of spaced-out electro inevitably recalls Kraftwerk, Egyptian Lover, and the primordial Detroit-radio soup that eventually led to the birth of techno.” [“Take Me To Your Leader”] - STEREOGUM
“…digital jazz drumming, a slinky bass line, a denaturing vocal loop, soft-spoken bars from Stas THEE Boss that evoke Butler’s fellow Digable Planet Ladybug Mecca before moving into less charted territory later in the track, and eerie, sing-song interludes from Dust Moth’s Irene Barber.” [“Angela”] - The FADER
“…a cinematic joint with the most refreshingly straightforward rapping on the entire album.” [“Myths of the Occult”] - SLANT
“…heady, psychedelic” [“Angela”] - Brooklyn Vegan
“Stas THEE Boss and Irene Barber lend their voices to this funked-out space-age track, which feels a little bit like g-funk on the moon. It’s a cosmic groove that has vibes for days, a concise jam that could keep going for twice as long and I’d be just fine with that.” [“Angela”] - TREBLE
“Trippy and funked out” [“Angela”] - Gorilla vs Bear
Shabazz Palaces
Exotic Birds Of Prey
Tracklisting
1. Exotic BOP (feat. Purple Tape Nate)
2. Angela (feat. Stas THEE Boss & Irene Barber)
3. Myths Of The Occult (feat. Japreme Magnetic)
4. Goat Me (feat. Cobra Coil)
5. Well Known Nobody (feat. OCnotes)
6. Synth Dirt
7. Take Me To Your Leader (feat. Lavarr the Starr)
Shabazz Palaces
Robed in Rareness
Tracklisting:
1. Binoculars (feat. Royce The Choice)
2. Woke Up In A Dream (feat. Lil Tracy)
3. P Kicking G (feat. Porter Ray)
4. Cinnamon Bun (feat. Lavarr the Starr)
5. Scarface Mace (feat. O Finess)
6. Gel Bait (feat. Geechi Suede)
7. Hustle Crossers
On May 24th, Australian group Girl and Girl will release their vibrant debut full-length, Call A Doctor, on CD/LP/DSP via Virgin Australia (AU/NZ) and Sub Pop (ROW.)
Following the infectious lead single “Hello,” which recently peaked at #1 for two weeks in a row on the subModern Alternative Specialty Chart, comes an official video for their latest single, “Mother.”
Girl and Girl frontperson Kai James shares: “I wrote Mother about my beautiful mum and how our relationship has matured and evolved from my late teens to my mid-twenties. Shifting from this all-knowing being into something a bit more human. There’s beauty in that shift, relief at the fact that no one’s perfect, but then fear and doubt, too, as you step out and slowly learn to trust and back yourself.”
Mother was directed by Andy Freer and Dan Flood of the internationally acclaimed Australian theatre company Snuff Puppets. Click HERE to watch.
Call A Doctor is an unforgettable first bow from Girl and Girl, an audacious and aggressively tuneful blast of a record from this Australian four-piece garage rock outfit. The band is comprised of frontperson Kai James (singer, guitarist) and his Aunty Liss (drums), along with longtime friends Jayden Williams (guitar) and Fraser Bell (bass). Call A Doctor was recorded at Sundowner Sound in Melbourne, a two-story industrial complex where the band ate, slept, and made music in marathon sessions for two weeks straight with producer Burke Reid (Courtney Barnett, Julia Jacklin).
As previously announced, the band has confirmed North American & Australian tour dates, with additional appearances at Eurokennees in France and End of the Road in the UK. Girl and Girl are fresh off performances at this year’s SXSW Music Festival. Rolling Stone included the band in their Day 2 SXSW round-up and said: “every member of Girl and Girl is too young to have experienced the garage rock revivalism of Y2K firsthand, save Aunty Liss, the drummer who supports her nervy nephews in this band of Australian post-punk traditionalists. Fronted by the wiry Kai James — handsome and jittery, never reclusive — the group treated sacred post-punk texts as if they were a common language when they played the 13th Floor, giving their barbed hooks and sideways riffs real kick. They’re carrying a torch without succumbing to nostalgia or formalism, all because they’re intoxicated by the noise they make.”
The band will return to the States in late April for a North American tour supporting fellow Aussies Royel Otis. See below for a complete list of shows.
Thur. Apr. 04 - Gold Coast, QLD - Mo’s Desert Clubhouse
Fri. Apr, 05 - Sunshine Coast, QLD - Sol Bar
Sat. Apr. 06 - Brisbane, QLD - Black Bear Lodge
Fri. Apr. 12 - Melbourne, VIC - The Tote
Sat. Apr. 13 - Sydney, NSW - Lansdowne
Sun. Apr. 14 - Wollongong, NSW - La La Las
Tue. Apr. 23 - St. Paul, MN - Amsterdam Bar & Hall *
WED. Apr. 24 - Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall *
Fri. Apr. 26 - Toronto, ON - Longboat Hall *
Sar. Apr. 27 - Columbus, OH - A&R Music Bar *
Sun. Apr. 28 - Cleveland Heights, OH - Grog Shop *
Tue. Apr. 30 - New York, NY - Racket *
Wed. May 01 - New York, NY - Racket *
Thu. May 02 - Philadelphia, PA - Theater For The Living Arts *
Fri. May 03 - Washington, DC - The Howard *
Sat. May 04 - Carrboro, NC - Cats Cradle *
Wed. May 08 - Austin, TX - The Parish *
Thu. May 09 - Denton, TX - Rubber Gloves *
Sat. May 11 -Denver, CO - The Perplexiplex at Meow Wolf *
Wed. May 15 - Phoenix, AZ - Rebel Lounge *
Thu. May 16 - Hollywood, CA - The Fonda Theater *
Fri. May 17 - Santa Barbara, CA - Soho Restaurant & Music Club *
Sat. May 18 - San Francisco, CA - Rickshaw Stop *
Mon. May 20 - Portland, OR - The Aladdin Theater *
Tue. May 21 - Vancouver, BC - Fox Cabaret *
Wed. May 22 - Seattle, WA - Neptune Theater *
Thu. Jul. 04 - Cravanche, FR - Les Eurokennees
Fri. Jul. 05 - Cravanche, FR - Les Eurokennees
Sat. Jul. 06- Cravanche, FR - Les Eurokennees
Sun. Jul. 07- Cravanche, FR - Les Eurokennees
Thu. Aug. 29 - Dorset, UK - End Of The Road
Fri. Aug. 30 - Dorset, UK - End Of The Road
Sat. Aug. 31 - Dorset, UK -End Of The Road
Sun. Sep. 01 - Dorset, UK -End Of The Road
* w/ Royel Otis
Call A Doctor is available to preorder now on CD/LP/DSPs from Sub Pop. LP preorders from megamart.subpop.com, select independent retailers (US), select independent retail stores (EU/UK) & Mega Mart 2 (the new, UK-based sibling site to the world-famous Sub Pop Mega Mart) will receive the Loser Edition on White vinyl. All colored vinyl versions are available while stock lasts.
Girl and Girl
Call A Doctor
Track Listing:
1. INTRO
2. Call A Doctor
3. Hello
4. Maple Jean and the Anthropocene
5. Oh Boy!
6. Suffocate
7. Mother
8. You’ll Be Alright
9. Comfortable Friends
10. Our Love (Ours Only)
11. OUTRO
On April 12th, 2024, Sub Pop will release a new single from Chicago’s FACS. This new single features an exclusive, original A-side, “North America Endless,” and a cover of The Eurythmics’ song “Take Me to Your Heart” on the B-side. It is limited to 1,000 copies worldwide, and it comes on white vinyl. Watch the tense official video for “North America Endless” directed by Joshua Ford now.
FACS have been perfecting their brand of intense, cathartic art rock over the course of four ever-evolving albums. Beginning with 2018’s Negative Houses through 2021’s landmark Present Tense, the trio digs deep into the gaping maw of a black hole and pulls back whatever debris they can grasp onto. Their 2023 LP Still Life iDecay came as an addendum to their last album— a “post-event review,” if you will. The band is made up of Brian Case (90 Day Men, The Ponys, Disappears), Jonathan Van Herik (Disappears), and Noah Leger (Milemarker).
Case says of “North America Endless,” “We had been talking a lot about how to incorporate melody in a new way with the material we were starting to write after Still Life in Decay, and this was one of the first experiments with that. I had this inverted Polvo thing I had been playing around with that Jonathan married to a really nice Frippy sustained lead, and it kind of just wrote itself. Lyrically, it’s about the dissociation needed to live in this country and the powerlessness that can bring. Noah’s beat at the end of the song is one of my favorites from him.”
Regarding the cover of Eurythmics’ “Take Me to Your Heart,” Case says the song is “A band favorite, we’ve been kicking around a version of this since we first started FACS, but for some reason just got around to completing it now. This song has a lot of elements we keep in focus when we write - repetition, space, off-the-grid melodies, and mantra-like lyrics that can be construed in a few ways based on what perspective you view them from.”
FACS “North America Endless” b/w “Take Me to Your Heart” single can now be preordered at megamart.subpop.com, select independent retailers in North America, and Bandcamp.
FACS
“North America Endless” b/w “Take Me To Your Heart”
