Hot Hot Heat’s Make Up The Breakdown: Deluxe Edition is the newly remastered and expanded version of the group’s breakthrough full-length and will be available again on vinyl, just in time for the 20th Anniversary of its release, on Friday, December 2nd, 2022 from Sub Pop.
Make Up The Breakdown was produced by Jack Endino (Nirvana, Soundgarden, Sonic Youth) at Vancouver, BC’s Mushroom Studios with additional engineering and mixing from former Death Cab for Cutie member Chris Walla at The Hall of Justice in Seattle, and released on October 8th, 2002 as a ten-track album. For this deluxe edition, Make Up The Breakdown has been expanded to twelve tracks and now includes “Apt. 101” and “Move On,” two tracks only previously available with a UK-only single for “Bandages.”
Make Up The Breakdown earned praise from the likes of AllMusic, who called the album “an addictive, densely packed pop gem that ranks among 2002’s best albums,” and Pitchfork agreed, including it at no. 20 on “The 50 Best Albums of 2002.” The official videos for “Bandages” and “Talk to Me, Dance With Me” saw regular airplay on MTV. Meanwhile the singles saw huge support at Alternative Radio, with both songs going to no. 1 at the KROQ in Los Angeles.
Make Up The Breakdown: Deluxe Edition is available now to preorder from Sub Pop. LP preorders from megamart.subpop.com, select independent stores in North America, the U.K., and E.U., will receive the limited Loser edition on yellow vinyl.
More on Make Up The Breakdown… To be lost and naked in the city one time is an embarrassment, a mistake not to be repeated. Lost and naked in the city, again - that is a lifestyle, a conscientious series of decisions that leaves one vulnerable to all the dizzying highs and brutal hangovers that come with being ready to transcend the limitations of a small town or a parochial punk mindset or just years upon years of repressed self-loathing. Or, as Hot Hot Heat singer/keyboardist Steve Bays puts it, “leaving the womb of teenhood and having no idea what to do with all that freedom.” This is what Make Up the Breakdown sounds like because this is what it was like to be in Hot Hot Heat.
This is not a phase of one’s life that can be recreated or even revised; even Bays admits that he had to shelf his fully digitized, “re-envisioned” and technically “better” version of his band’s beloved debut out of respect to its fans. But to hear these songs again and remember is even more powerful with the wisdom of distance, to recognize the little pivots that, unbeknownst at the time, changed everything. If Bays isn’t offered a solo deal after uploading crude solo synth-pop songs to Napster, Hot Hot Heat are only remembered as one of the many promising DIY bands in Victoria, British Columbia that broke up before anyone could take them seriously. If Dante Decaro fails to hold his liquor during one fateful Victoria house party, he never meets Bays; instead, Decaro and Paul Hawley stay up until 1 PM the next day playing Beatles covers and Hot Hot Heat’s classic lineup becomes solidified. If Dustin Hawthorne doesn’t play his bass through a crushingly loud Sunn amp or if they can afford a decent PA, Bays doesn’t develop a high-wire yelp that can cut through the noise. If Sub Pop A&R Tony Kiewel doesn’t hear the band’s name in a coffee shop the day before Bays sends an unsolicited email, Hot Hot Heat are rejected from every indie label that got their demo. If Bays’ mother doesn’t unexpectedly advise him to follow his dreams and sign with Sub Pop, he takes a desk gig as a creative director.
The precariousness of Hot Hot Heat’s existence extended to the creation of Make Up the Breakdown itself. If Bays doesn’t have a pen and a cocktail napkin while riding the ferry to Mushroom Studios, the lyrics to “Get In Or Get Out” never get written. If producer Jack Endino doesn’t insist that they record “Bandages” first, Bays probably changes the hook and writes a second verse that robs their hit single of its unstoppable momentum. If the band brings their beloved Juno-6 synthesizer, they never get a chance to use the creaky Hammond organ responsible for their most recognizable riffs - the ones that earned them countless critical comparisons to the excitable, angsty new wave of The Cure and Elvis Costello and XTC, rather than West Coast art-punks like The Locust or The Rapture and Modest Mouse that they are listening to and partying with.
Hot Hot Heat stayed true to Hawley’s initial conception of the band - “we can make pop music, but we have to screw it up in some way.” Their past incarnations as hardcore, death metal and second-wave emo found subtle ways to emerge throughout an album that aspired to be Victoria’s Help!. In the past, “the goal was to never play a chord progression that had been played before,” and that melodic ingenuity manifests in the whiplash key change on the chorus of “No, Not Now.” As Bays described the Victoria straight-edge hardcore milieu, “if the crowd’s not moving, you’re not a good band.” The same principles inform the arm-flailing rhythms of “Save Us S.O.S.” and “Talk to Me, Dance With Me.”
Over the next two years, Hot Hot Heat went from playing to seven people in Boise to festival crowds of 50,000; being lazily compared to Robert Smith to sharing backstage jokes with Robert Smith about those comparisons; learning multi-track recording on the fly to spending $350,000 in a Los Angeles studio to complete 2005’s Elevator; getting added to BBC Radio 1 and almost immediately banned because the mass delusional hysteria of the Iraq War led grandmas in the UK to believe “Bandages” was endorsing state violence. But to describe Make Up the Breakdown as an “instant classic” is flattering and misleading - nothing was preordained about its success or its resonance, and from the first grinding, giddy notes of “Naked in the City Again,” Make Up the Breakdown is reanimated with the blind, beery exuberance that set them apart from the urban ennui and wasted elegance that would come to define the “New Rock Revolution” of the early 2000s.
Though they shared the same stages and magazine covers as The Strokes and Interpol and the Libertines and the Killers, Hot Hot Heat made for convincing underdogs, the people’s champs - what could born rock stars know about the catastrophic romantic rejection of “Oh Goddamnit” or the crippling small-town angst of “Get In Or Get Out”? Though Victoria was largely marooned and could only absorb the essence of the indie scenes in San Diego, Vancouver and Seattle, it’s a microcosm for the widespread culture clashes playing out in Make Up the Breakdown.
The past 20 years has flattened the narrative of the early 2000s - one day, it was all nu-metal and rap-rock and goatees and the next, skinny boys from New York and the UK in tight jeans playing tighter songs about sex, drugs and druggy sex (or sexy drugs). Make Up the Breakdown told the truth about those caught up in this awkward growth spurt - cross-armed, straight edge kids were now going out to the bars, trying to get laid, unironically enjoying pop and causing all manner of romantic and idealistic conflict. As much as Make Up the Breakdown was slice-of-life scene reportage, Bays intended it as trenchant cultural criticism - “I was getting tired of the in-fighting and small town mentality,” he recalls. “If you don’t like your hometown, leave and I bet you’ll find the same problems wherever you land. You gotta find your peace.” Most likely, you will find it drunk and naked in the city again - again.
Praise for Make Up The Breakdown: “Every step of the album is a joyously bold, emotionally rounded one all of which betrays a cleverly veiled melancholia. From ‘Get In Or Get Out’’s crypto-jazz keys to the cowbell-driven studied cool of ‘Talk To Me, Dance With Me’, it’s a record that shakes all preconceptions from the tree, and should be talked about in hushed tones by self-congratulatory, music aficionados 20 years from now.” ★★★★ ½ - NME
“Crucially, Hot Hot Heat have also learned the art of the three-minute pop song. Make Up the Breakdown zips by in a giddy blur of taut punk-funk grooves and insanely catchy choruses. Highlights such as ‘Bandages’ and ‘Get In or Get Out’ sound like lost classics buried in 1982 and only recently disinterred.” ★★★★ - The Guardian
“The Victoria, Canada, quartet’s debut LP is one long indie/new wave rave-up, all spring-loaded guitars, stabbing organs, and footloose drums…the band bashes into every chorus like they’re smacking a pinata full of blood and chocolate (8/10).” - SPIN
“This frenetic foursome from Victoria, Canada, presides over a colossal jousting match between synths and guitars that is liable to leave its audience breathless…With Steve Bays’ faux-tortured vocals (Robert Smith on antidepressants?) providing the narration, listeners might want to rage, or they might want to disco. Or maybe both.” ★★★ ½ - Los Angeles Times
Last Wednesday, September 21st, 2022, Clipping announced REMXNG, a quartet of EPs featuring remixes of tracks from the band’s Horrorcore-themed albums, There Existed an Addiction to Blood and Visions of Bodies Being Burned. Each EP showcases remixers hand-picked by Clipping to slash, mangle, and brutalize the band’s music into all-new, exquisitely macabre, creations.
REMXNG 2.2 leads with UK producer Rian Treanor’s jagged, stuttering edit of “‘96 Neve Campbell.” Treanor blends underground dance music genres with the techniques of musique concrète, and computer music, slicing the slasher-themed track into a collage of stabbing jump-scares. James Acaster (who happens to also be one of the band’s favorite comedians) collaborated with Deerhoof’s John Diederich on a mash-up of the band’s “She Bad” and “He Dead,” which is followed by a synth freak-out rework of “Run for Your Life” by Baseck (who frequently appears as a turntablist on Clipping albums). Next is Fire-Toolz’s hyperactive neon glitch symphony of “Attunement.” Egyptian producer ZULI gives “Make Them Dead” a crushingly heavy Drum & Bass flip, and akeyamasou’s mysterious “Something Underneath” remix atomizes its source into a dense cloud of IDM haze. The EP closes with a miniature for modular synthesizer and sampler by David Rothbaum—another frequent Clipping collaborator.
REMXNG 2.2 is the second of four such EPs, which will be released every Wednesday through October 12, 2022.
Clipping’s international touring for the fall of 2022, resumes with an appearance at Southern California’s Desert Daze Festival Friday, September 30th. Then from Thursday, November 10th through November 29th, 2022, Clipping will tour the UK and EU again for a 14-date run. Please find a current list of dates below.
Fri. Sep. 30 - Perris, CA - Desert Days Sat. Oct. 01 - San Francisco, CA - Grey Area Fri. Nov. 11 - Utrecht, NL - Le Guess Who? Festival Sat. Nov. 12 - La Chaux-de-Fonds, CH - Bikini Test Mon. Nov. 14 -Brussels, BE - Magasin 4 Tue. Nov. 15 - Prague, CZ - Meet Factory Thu. Nov. 17 - London, UK - Fabric Fri. Nov. 18 - Leeds, UK - Belgrave Music Hall Sun. Nov. 20 - Warsaw, PL - Hydrozagadka Tue. Nov. 22 - Paris, FR - Trabendo Wed. Nov. 23 - Rennes, FR - Antipode Club Thu. Nov. 24 - Nantes, FR - Pole Etudient Fri. Nov. 25 - Lyon, FR - Les SUBS Sat. Nov. 26 - Lille, FR - L’Aéronef Mon. Nov. 28 - Copenhagen, DK - VEGA Tue. Nov. 29 - Aarhus, DK - Voxhall
Recently, four of Clipping’s songs were featured on a new app developed with Modify Music, which is available now on iOS and Android app stores. This is a real-time mixing app, that has each song separated into four “stems” that can be mixed on the fly. Alongside the original stems, the listener will have the option to switch out and mix in alternative stems that Jonathan Snipes produced just for the app. The app can be found here: https://modifymusic.com/artists/clipping/
Clipping REMXNG 2.2
Tracklisting: 1. ‘96 Neve Campbell (Rian Treanor Remix) 2. He Is Dead and She is Bad (Party Gator Remix) 3. Run For Your Life (Baseck Remix) 4. Attunement (Fire-Toolz - Atonement Remix) 5. Make Them Dead (ZULI’s Life After Death Remix) 6. Something Underneath (akeyamasou Remix) 7. She Bad (David Rothbaum Remix)
Watch Weyes Blood get her big break (at the end of the world) in the deranged official music video for “It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody,” the acclaimed new single and opening track from And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow, her forthcoming album.
The Anchors Aweigh-meets-The Omega Man-inspired, live-action/animated visual pairs Weyes Blood’s Natalie Mering as “the new kid” alongside her co-star, a formerly celebrated and now disgruntled cell phone. Singing! Dancing! Technological Cannibalism! Even More Dancing! The “It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody” video was directed by filmmaker Charlotte Ercoli (Weyes Blood’s “Seven Words”).
Released earlier this month, “It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody” saw praise from the likes of New York Times, who say, “Natalie Mering’s soft, clarion voice sounds like a delayed transmission from 1970s AM radio, blending the searching tone of Court and Spark-era Joni Mitchell with the celestial calm of Karen Carpenter. She uses that instrument to stirring effect on ‘It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody’…” Pitchfork offers this, “Discovering the shared ache of seclusion, she yearns for pain and isolation to dissolve, settling on a poignant solution: mercy. As Mering repeats the title refrain, the song swells with orchestral strings and effervescent harp from Mary Lattimore (“Best New Track”).”
The astonishing new Weyes Blood full-length And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow will be available on Friday, November 18th, 2022. The album’s ten tracks were written by Weyes Blood’s Natalie Mering, with album production from Mering along with Jonathan Rado on all songs except for “A Given Thing,” produced by Mering and Rodaidh McDonald. And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow was mixed by Kenny Gilmore at 101 Studio, and mastered by Emily Lazar and Chris Allgood at The Lodge, and features guest appearances from Meg Duffy, Daniel Lopatin, and Lattimore.
The album is her follow-up to the acclaimed Titanic Rising, the first album of three in a special trilogy. Where Titanic was an observation of doom to come, And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow is about being in the thick of it: a search for an escape hatch to liberate us from algorithms and ideological chaos (spoiler alert: the next one will be about “hope”). “We’re in a fully functional shit show,” Mering says. “My heart is a glow stick that’s been cracked, lighting up my chest in an explosion of earnestness.”
Weyes Blood’s “In Holy Flux Tour,” a headlining international touring run for the Spring of 2023 in support of And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow, has also been announced. The UK and EU dates begin on Saturday, January 28th in Berlin at Festsaal Kreuzberg and ending Tuesday, February 14th in Brighton, UK at CHALK. The North American leg will begin Wednesday, February 22nd in Nashville at Brooklyn Bowl and currently ends Saturday, April 2nd in Tulsa at Cain’s Ballroom.
Due to popular demand, Weyes Blood’s March 5th, 2023 show in Boston has now moved from the Royale to the Roadrunner. Previously purchased tickets will be honored at the new venue, with additional tickets on sale now. For up-to-date information on tickets, please visit WeyesBlood.com/tour.
December 2022 Thu. Dec. 08 - Los Angeles, CA - The Theatre at Ace Hotel [SOLD OUT] Fri. Dec. 09 - Los Angeles, CA - The Theatre at Ace Hotel [SOLD OUT]
In Holy Flux Tour 2023 UK/Europe Sat.Jan. 28 - Berlin, DE - Festsaal Kreuzberg Mon. Jan. 30 - Stockholm, SE - Berns Tue. Jan. 31- Oslo, NO - Rockefeller Wed. Feb. 01 - Copenhagen, DK - VEGA Fri. Feb. 03 - Cologne, DE - Kulturkirche Sat. Feb. 04 - Paris, FR - Le Trianon Sun. Feb. 05 - Brussels, BE - Botanique - Orangerie Mon. Feb. 06 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso Wed. Feb.08 - London, UK - Roundhouse Thu. Feb. 09 - Bristol, UK - SWX Fri. Feb. 10 - Glasgow, UK - QMU Sun. Feb. 12- Dublin, IE - Vicar Street Mon. Feb. 13 - Manchester, UK - O2 Ritz Tue. Feb. 14 - Brighton, UK - CHALK
North America Wed. Feb. 22 - Nashville, TN - Brooklyn Bowl Thu. Feb. 23 - Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse Fri. Feb. 24 - Asheville, NC - The Orange Peel Sat. Feb. 25 - Carrboro, NC - Cat’s Cradle Mon. Feb. 27 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club Tue. Feb. 28 - Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer Fri. Mar. 03 - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Steel [SOLD OUT] Sat. Mar. 04 - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Steel Sun. Mar. 05 - Boston, MA - Roadrunner [New venue] Tue. Mar. 07 - Montreal, QC - Corona Theatre Wed. Mar. 08 - Toronto, ON - The Danforth Music Hall Thu. Mar. 09 - Toronto, ON - The Danforth Music Hall Fri. Mar. 10 - Detroit, MI - El Club Sat. Mar. 11 - Chicago, IL - Riviera Theatre Mon. Mar. 13 - Milwaukee, WI - The Pabst Theater Tue. Mar. 14 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue Wed. Mar. 15 - Des Moines, IA - Wooly’s Fri. Mar. 17 - Englewood, CO - Gothic Theatre Sat. Mar. 18 - Salt Lake City, UT - The Depot Sun. Mar. 19 - Boise, ID - Knitting Factory Concert House Tue. Mar. 21 - Vancouver, BC - Commodore Ballroom Wed. Mar. 22 - Seattle, WA - The Showbox Thu. Mar. 23 - Portland, OR - McMenamins Crystal Ballroom Sat. Mar. 25 - San Francisco, CA - The Regency Ballroom Sun. Mar. 26 - San Francisco, CA - The Regency Ballroom Tue. Mar. 28 - Phoenix, AZ - The Van Buren Wed. Mar. 29 - Santa Fe, NM - Meow Wolf Fri. Mar. 31 - Austin, TX - Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater Sat. Apr. 01 - Dallas, TX - Studio at The Factory Sun. Apr. 02 - Tulsa, OK - Cain’s Ballroom
And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow will be available on CD/LP/CS/DSPs, and can be preordered now from Sub Pop. In North America, LP preorders through megamart.subpop.com, select independent retailers, and Weyes Blood’s official website will receive the limited Loser Edition on translucent purple vinyl. Meanwhile, preorders of the LP at select independent retailers in the UK and EU will receive the Loser Edition on clear vinyl (both Loser Edition options available while supplies last).
Weyes Blood And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow
Tracklist 1. It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody 2. Children of the Empire 3. Grapevine 4. God Turn Me Into a Flower 5. Hearts Aglow 6. And in the Darkness 7. Twin Flame 8. In Holy Flux 9. The Worst Is Done 10. A Given Thing
Frankie Cosmos is sharing “F.O.O.F,” an incredibly intricate and tactile official video from artist Cole Montminy. The song is from Inner World Peace, the group’s forthcoming new album.
On Inner World Peace, Frankie Cosmos’ are at their most psychedelic and playful, interjecting fuzz solos, bits of percussion, and other sonically adventurous ear candy. An internal logic strengthens everything, and in their proggiest moments, Frankie Cosmos are simply a one-take band who don’t miss. When on Inner World Peace they sound wildly, freshly different, it may just be that they’re coming deeper into their own. “F.O.O.F” is one of those moments.
Greta offers this on the song and video, “For me, ‘F.O.O.F’ is about creating random boundaries and schedules for yourself in an attempt to feel in control. Feeling time passing at varying speeds and time traveling with music. I love Cole’s art, and we were all so excited and grateful they were on board to make this video. I’ve struggled with feelings of isolation as a result of the pandemic, combined with escalated use of technology. This video embodies that, and the ending provides a sense of relief and freedom from those feelings. We could all stand to smash our computers and go touch some grass.”
Inner World Peace, will be available on October 21st, 2022 on CD/LP/CS/DSPs worldwide from Sub Pop. The album, which features the aforementioned “F.O.O.F.”, along with standouts “Aftershook,” “One Year Stand,” and “Empty Head,” was co-produced by Frankie Cosmos, Nate Mendelsohn, and Katie Von Schleicher at Figure 8 Recording in Brooklyn, New York, mixed by Mendelsohn and Von Schleicher, and mastered by Josh Bonati at Bonati Mastering. The Inner World Peace album art also features illustrations from band member Lauren Martin.
Frankie Cosmos has scheduled an Inner World Peace release show in Queens NY on October 7th 2022 at Knockdown Center’s The Ruins. Hannah Jadagu and Ian Sweet will be opening.
Inner World Peace is available for preorder now from Sub Pop. LP preorders from megamart.subpop.com, select independent retailers in North America, the UK and Europe, will receive the album on crystal clear vinyl (while supplies last).
Also available now with LPs preorders is a new limited edition Frankie Cosmos Zine, compiled by Greta Kline. It will include the first three issues of the Zine, bound together and will come with the first 400 Loser LPs of Inner World Peace pre-ordered on the Sub Pop Mega Mart.
Greta says of the zine, “You may not have heard of this zine if you aren’t on our mailing list, but I’ve been handmaking these and producing them in small batches, and I’m excited to have the opportunity to print and share more of them.
Frankie Cosmos Inner World Peace
Tracklisting 1. Abigail 2. Aftershook 3. Fruit Stand 4. Magnetic Personality 5. Wayne 6. Sky Magnet 7. A Work Call 8. Empty Head 9. Fragments 10. Prolonging Babyhood 11. One Year Stand 12. F.O.O.F. 13. Street View 14. Spare the Guitar 15. Heed the Call
Today, Damien Jurado’s Waters Ave S, his beloved debut, is available on vinyl for the first time in years from Sub Pop.
2022 promises to be a banner year for Damien Jurado. Not only does the year mark the songwriter’s 50th birthday, but it also sees the summer release of his 18th studio album, the impressionistic and tuneful Reggae Film Star. And hang on, there’s more: on September 23rd, 2022 Sub Pop Records reissues Jurado’s debut full-length, 1997’s Waters Ave S. The work of a young artist driven by complex inner visions, the LP offers a fresh chance to examine how far Jurado has come in the 25 years since its release—but also demonstrates how much of his point of view and vivid scenecraft was firmly in place from the very start.
A veteran of the DIY punk and hardcore scenes, Jurado had begun taking steps into the world of lo-fi home recording. But with renowned indie rock producer Steve Fisk acting as producer, Waters Ave S introduced Jurado to the independent music world, presenting a set of 13 songs that encompass odes to remote desert outposts, late-night conversations with Elvis, a purple anteater, and the great beyond. Though new to the studio, Jurado’s storytelling lens is well honed; these compositions are filled with characters wandering the psychic wilderness, flawed but nonetheless certain of themselves, or at least certain enough.
Those only familiar with Jurado’s ambient-tinged folk or AM gold psychedelia will find the album more punky than expected, replete with post-punk basslines, electric guitars, and a youthful tenor to Jurado’s voice. But what’s most striking about the record is how fully formed his world is, especially on songs like the lilting, drum looped “Angel of May,” the sci-fi “Space Age Mom,” and mournful simplicity of the title track. Jurado was just getting started, but the path he’d follow seems laid out by Waters Ave S. 25 years later, it’s clear that the creative spirit that fuels this idiosyncratic and exuberant record is one that still propels Jurado to this day.
Tracklisting 1. Wedding Cake 2. Angel of May 3. Treasures of Gold 4. Yuma, AZ 5. The Joke Is Over 6. Space Age Mom 7. Circus, Circus, Circus 8. Hell or Highwater 9. Independent 10. Purple Anteater 11. Sarah 12. Halo Friendly 13. Waters Ave S.
